| The History of Santa Claus Revealed | | | | "T'was the night before Christmas, when all through |
| Norman A. Rubin | | | | the house |
| (At Christmas time we imagine a jovial figure dressed | | | | Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..." |
| in red driving a sleigh filled with toys and gifts pulled | | | | The poem was intended solely for his children, his |
| by a herd of reindeer streaking over rooftops. Or | | | | audience, when he first read it, numbered a lady who |
| could that he is a really figure from the past and not | | | | arranged for its anonymous publication in a local |
| as we envisage him to be.) | | | | paper. The story was later taken up by Thomas |
| Since the earliest history of man almost every | | | | Nast, a magazine illustrator of Bavarian descent. He |
| European culture has marked the winter solstice with | | | | was the person who turned St. Nicholas, his name |
| a major festival for the rebirth of the earth. As the | | | | now abbreviated to Santa Claus or Klaus (from the |
| moment in time when, provided the appropriate | | | | Dutch Sankt Nikolaus) into the cheerful, rubicund, |
| rituals are performed and celebrated the earth will be | | | | bearded figure that became the personification of |
| reborn anew from the quietus of winter, its | | | | Christmas. |
| significance is manifest. Many are aware that this | | | | Soon popular throughout the United States, Santa |
| which lies behind our Christmas and New Years | | | | Claus began to lose any connection with his Dutch |
| celebrations. | | | | and religious past. His secularization went still further |
| The lack of significance is indicated by the fact that | | | | when he crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the British |
| no attempt was made to Christianize the festival until | | | | Isles in the mid-nineteenth century. Here the figure |
| the middle of the fourth century. In the seventh | | | | quickly merged with an ancient personage, Father |
| century when the Puritans of England actually banned | | | | Christmas or Old Christmas, who had figured in the |
| it withother festivals of this kind there was no | | | | Mummer's plays probably since the pre-Christian era. |
| outcry. | | | | Over the ensuing years the process continued with |
| The truth is our present festivities of the holidays | | | | Father Christmas/Santa Claus acquiring characteristics, |
| are almost entirely a nineteenth century innovation in | | | | which increasingly separated him from his original |
| which three elements came together. One, the | | | | ancestry. Save in the country of Holland, where the |
| English writer, Charles Dickens with his Christmas | | | | tradition of St. Nicholas is still celebrated. Within time |
| stories, most famously 'A Christmas Carol', was the | | | | the Saint is no longer generally associated with the |
| native element. The second was Germanic, in the | | | | sixth of December, but to the Christmas holiday on |
| form of the Prince Consort of the throne of England | | | | December twenty-fifth; and his abode has moved to |
| who, in 1840, set up a Christmas tree for his children | | | | the frozen north, whence he travels on a flying |
| at Windsor Palace. The other element was American, | | | | sledge drawn by a team of flying reindeer. Today |
| though it was to combine with a relic from pagan | | | | Santa Claus remains the bearer of gifts, but most |
| Britain. | | | | idiosyncratically he enters homes by the way of the |
| The American contribution to the element of Santa | | | | chimney and leaving, 'traveling upward with fire and |
| Claus came by a circuitous route, which in the early | | | | smoke..". |
| of colonization of America was called Saint Nicholas. | | | | "And a Merry Xmas to all..." |
| The Dutch who colonized what was called New | | | | NOTE: |
| Amsterdam, now New York, had imported a custom | | | | 1) The reindeer remains important to the economy |
| from their home country of Holland. The sixth of | | | | of the Laplanders of Northern Europe, but another |
| December is the feast of their Patron saint. Nicholas | | | | source of income augment it. It is tourism as it is the |
| of Myra. The day was traditionally marked by a | | | | place much visited that is supposed to be the place |
| figure in red and white Episcopal vestments visiting | | | | where Santa Claus lives; and at Xmas time the post |
| every household in which there were children. If the | | | | office there is inundated with letters by children to |
| youngsters had been good throughout the year, they | | | | that jolly figure. |
| were rewarded with small presents. If not they were | | | | 2) In the days when open fireplaces were usual, |
| liable to a mild form of punishment at the hands of | | | | children would write their requests to Father |
| Klaubauf the assistant who accompanied St. Nicholas. | | | | Christmas on pieces of paper then thrown on the fire |
| In 1822, Clement Moore, professor of Greek and | | | | when they burned to ash and allowed to drift up the |
| Hebrew at New York State University, charmed by | | | | chimney and float on the winds, that it was hoped |
| the custom, wrote a fifty-six-line poem 'The Visit of | | | | their petitions would reach him before Xmas. |
| St. Nicholas', with its now famous line: | | | | |