How did Christmas time look in the Gracie family household during the glory days of Helio and Carlos Gracie in Brazil? Rener Gracie shares some of the Gracie family Christmas traditions of old.
It appears that Helio Gracie had a flair for the dramatic when it came to Christmas, pulling out all the stops, according to his nephew Rener Gracie. In an interview with Bloody Elbow, Rener shared some of the more interesting Christmas traditions of the Gracie Family:
“My dad goes all the way. He has a history that comes from the grandmaster. Grandmaster Helio, my grandfather, every Christmas in Brazil, would dress up in full Santa Clause regalia, and he would get on a black stallion, a black horse, in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, would come galloping onto the property with a bag full of presents.
He would get off the horse, and climb off the ladder, and go in to give out presents to all the kids in the Gracie compound, as we called it. My dad grew up with that whole thing so he tried to preserve that here.”
Rener went on to explain how his father Rorion still upholds the Gracie family Christmas traditions taught to him by his father Helio, although he does not ride a stallion through the streets of Torrence, CA:
“My dad has gone to every extent necessary to preserve that situation for the little ones. He doesn’t come up in a black stallion in the middle of the street in Torrance, CA, but he’ll get all dressed up and go across the street in the middle of the night, where he gets on top of the neighbour’s house, so that when the kids look out the window, they’ll see Santa on top of the house.
He comes down with all the presents and crosses the street like a little old man. Then he hands out the presents to all the kids. He goes all the way, 100%.”
A curious Rener figured it all out at age 8, though, when who he thought was Santa applied another of the Gracie family traditions: grip fighting when Rener tried to pull his beard:
“That worked for me until I was 8 years old. It’s so funny because I was sitting down to open my presents, and I reached up to grab his beard to look under it, because he was very good at making this disguise.
When I lifted the beard, he slapped my hand away from it and he reprimanded me using a Portuguese reprimand that only he did, my whole life.”
The tradition is still kept alive, with Rener now inheriting the mantles of the Gracie Family Santa:
“Now my dad has me dress up as Santa, because there are always kids being born in our family, so it’s always necessary for a new Santa Clause.”
