Jolly Facts You Didn’t Know About Santa Claus
No figure is more recognizable to youngsters throughout the Christmas season than Santa Claus. Throughout the year, parents teach their children the value of being courteous and well-behaved in the hopes of making his "nice" list. Children prepare for his coming by singing songs about him and setting out a platter of holiday cookies. But where did Santa come from, and how has he remained such a popular Christmas character over the years? Check out some interesting facts about the jolly ol' Saint Nick.
He’s based on a real person
Santa is most known as the guy that brings presents on Christmas Eve, although his roots are far from fictional. Santa's origins can be traced back to 280 A.D. in what is now Turkey. Saint Nicholas was a monk who traveled about the country helping the impoverished and sick. According to one account, he used his fortune to give a dowry for three destitute sisters, preventing their father from selling them. He gained a reputation as a defender of infants and mariners, and by the Renaissance, he had become one of Europe's most renowned saints.
His name came from the Netherlands
People from the Netherlands carried the tale of Sinterklaas, which is Dutch for Saint Nicholas, with them when they immigrated to the New World colonies. As Dutch families gathered to commemorate the saint's death in the late 1700s, the myth of the benevolent Sinterklaas entered American popular culture, and the name developed to Santa Claus over time.
Christmas wasn’t always about Santa bringing gifts
Christmas in early America was hardly the joyous occasion that we know and enjoy today. It was frowned upon in New England because it lacked a cheery character who delivered gifts and was observed with drinks outside. In the early nineteenth century, a series of poems and stories gave St. Nick a makeover and focused on the values of family and unity, redefining the holiday.
He didn’t always have a round belly
In his book "Knickerbocker's History of New York," published in 1809, author Washington Irving contributed to define Santa's image. He portrayed St. Nicholas as a pipe-smoking, slender figure flying over rooftops in a wagon dispensing gifts to nice youngsters before switching to the bad.
A poem popularized his image
Clement Clarke Moore composed "A Visit From St. Nicholas," a poem for his children, in 1822. Moore describes St. Nicholas as a "jolly old elf" with supernatural talents, such as the ability to enter a chimney with a nod of his head, in the poem. The poem was anonymously published and is now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."
He didn’t always wear a red suit
Moore's poem established Santa as an American icon, but it did not establish a standard for depictions of him. Some depictions from the 19th century depicted a man dressed in various colors, others depicted him in small form, and others depicted him riding a broomstick rather than a sleigh.
The poem introduced his reindeer as well
Santa was characterized in Irving's book as having a little wagon and only one reindeer to help him along the road. Moore's novel "A Visit from St. Nicholas" modified the story. Santa is guided "on a small sleigh" by eight flying reindeer in his poem.
Santa’s favorite reindeer is 80 years old
Rudolph, the most famous of all the reindeer, arrived more than a century after his eight counterparts. In 1939, a copywriter at the Montgomery Ward Department Store, Robert L. May, penned a story-poem to encourage people to visit the store over the holidays. May told the narrative of Rudolph, a young reindeer who is mocked because of his brilliant, red nose, but on a foggy night, he directs Santa as he delivers his gifts, using a rhyme pattern similar to "Twas the Night Before Christmas." The novel went on to sell over 2 million copies and was turned into a hit song in 1949, which is still sung around Christmas.
A political cartoonist drew his iconic look
Thomas Nast, the renowned political cartoonist best known for drawing the elephant that represents the Republican Party and the donkey that represents the Democratic Party, created the image of Santa Claus that we know today in 1881. Nast depicted Santa as a happy, round figure with a big white beard, undersized longjohns with white trimming, and a sack full of goodies.
Sending him letters started with a drawing
Nast went on to show many of the elements that we now identify with Santa. The merry fellow is portrayed seated at his desk, smoking a pipe, and sifting letters from "Good Children's Parents" and "Naughty Children's Parents" in an illustration published in Harper's Weekly in 1871. The idea of writing letters to Santa was popularized because to this photograph. Nast also gave children and parents a place to send their mail: the North Pole, in an 1886 drawing titled "Santaclausville, N.P."
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