What's with all the Nutcracker Soldiers?

 

These Xmas decorations are everywhere this year- but why?

 The thing I’ve noticed about 2023’s Xmas decorations is the ubiquitous presence of toy soldiers. Or to give them their correct name Nutcracker Soldiers. They’ve always been about but recently there seem to have been more and more of them till 2023 has seen an explosion. They are everywhere!  Every shop selling decorations has had a lot of them.  Why they have suddenly proliferated this year is something of a festive mystery but they are available in all sizes from several feet tall to small models. Over the past couple of months they’ve rivalled Xmas trees in availability and the other day I saw a full size one standing guard in the porch of a house. What is going on?

 

If you don’t know the ones I mean they are distinctively attired figures wearing a tall hat, usually black and gold in colour with a symbol on it. Their uniforms are smart with different breast plates, sashes and boots. Some of them are carrying an object usually a long metal rod, a drum or a trumpet. Many of them also sport  handlebar moustaches of a style not seen since the heyday of Jimmy Edwards. They stand looking straight ahead, on guard.   

These figures originated in German folklore where they were given as keepsakes and said to bring good luck and protect homes from those evil Xmas weasels*. The idea of Nutcracker keepsakes was not originally specifically for Xmas but could be given any time of the year. They weren’t even always soldiers though and could be animals or other people. The dolls themselves are first believed to have been made in the form with which we’re now familiar in the late Seventeenth Century and became the most popular one due to the Nutcracker Suite ballet which was first performed in 1882. In the story a character called Clara dreams  about toy soldiers coming to life with there being four different types- officers, artillery, infantry and cavalry. In what seems like a somewhat out there tale she gets these soldiers along with the Nutcracker Prince to battle an invasion of mice. Clearly there was something strong in the Bratwurst that year!

 There are a lot of Nutcracker Soldier variants around, enough for the Leavenworth NC Museum in Washington to house more than four thousand exhibits. The come in various sizes, you can buy a six and a half foot tall version to stand guard and probably terrify the local cats or miniature versions to hang from a Xmas tree.

Their popularity is such that they could soon overtake those festive staples of Father Xmas and the Snowman. Perhaps contemporary culture has become less comfortable with the whole Father Xmas concept while the Snowman could be said to represent the sort of weather most of us rarely experience these days. Those in the know about Xmas trends reckon these soldiers are part of a wider demand for vintage items around the home, a re-establishment of `classic` objects you may have found in homes decades ago. Well flowery wallpaper has made a comeback so anything is possible. On the other hand a decade back, it looked like garishly be-glittered reindeer were becoming the prime decoration but after a few seasons of finding bits of the stuff  everywhere people are probably seeking a less labour intensive display.

The big question though is can you actually crack a nut with a Nutcracker soldier and the answer is No. Well you might be able to but the modern ones are designed to be looked at only and any attempt to use them to attack a nut is liable to damage it.

*I might be making up the xmas weasels btw. Or am I?