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Santa's OriginsThe modern Santa Claus is a composite character made up from the merging of two quite separate figures. The first of these is Saint Nicholas of Myra, a bishop of Byzantine Anatolia (now in modern-day Turkey) famous for his generous gifts to the poor. In Europe he is still portrayed as a bearded bishop in canonical robes.
The second character is Father Christmas, which remains the British name for Santa Claus. Father Christmas dates back at least as far as the 17th century in Britain, and pictures of him survive from that era, portraying him as a well-nourished bearded man dressed in a long, green, fur-lined robe. He typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, and was reflected in the 'Spirit of Christmas Present' in Charles Dickens' famous story, A Christmas Carol. When the Dutch still owned the land that later became New York, they brought the Saint Nicholas' eve legend with them to the Americas, but without the red mantle and other symbols. Note that in Dutch, the feast is called 'sinterklaas feest' and it celebrates the birthday of sinterklaas during sinterklaasavond ("sinterklaas's evening") on the evening of December 5th. Sinterklaas was Americanized to "Santa Claus" but lost his bishop's apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. His horse was converted to reindeers and a sleigh, the black peters (which were in fact Moorish slaves) were converted to elves, and, in an attempt to move the origin of the festivities away from their pagan background to a more Christian one, the date was moved forward a few weeks to the celebrated day of the birth of Jesus: Christmas. This blend of Nicholas of Myra and North European folklore helped popularize Santa. The poem A Visit from Saint Nicholas (popularly known as The Night Before Christmas), first published in 1823, gave us the image of a rotund Santa and his sleigh landing on rooftops on Christmas Eve. The names of the reindeer were invented in this poem. It is suspected that the names Donner and Blitzen come from the German phrase Donner und Blitz which means Thunder and Lightning. An alternative explanation is that Donder is the original name of the seventh reindeer, as Donder en bliksem is Dutch for Thunder and Lightning. The reindeer are traditionally pictured with antlers, although male reindeer shed their antlers in the winter. (Female reindeer keep their antlers until spring.) Historically, one of the first artists to capture Santa Claus' image as we know him today was Thomas Nast, an American cartoonist of the 19th century. In 1862, a picture of Santa illustrated by Nast appeared in Harper's Weekly. It is believed the inspiration for his image came from a mythical German character called Pelznickel (Furry Nicholas) who visited naughty children in their sleep. Santa Claus appeared in various colored costumes as he gradually became amalgamated with the figure of Father Christmas, but red became popular after he appeared wearing such on an 1885 Christmas card. Santa's image was further modernized by the Coca-Cola company, which at the turn of the 20th century featured the character in a variety of advertising campaigns. The final version was designed in 1931 by the American artist Haddon Sundblom, who was inspired by the looks of the Swedish Tomte (a type of gnome or elf), as he was depicted on the Christmas cards of Jenny Nyström in Sweden. In Scandinavia, the Tomte is closely associated with Christmas, kindness and generosity. To this day, Santa Claus still appears on Coca-Cola products each year around Christmastime. These campaigns helped establish a "uniform" Santa character, whereas prior to this his appearance and costume had varied from artist to artist. Rudolph, 'the red-nosed reindeer', was not one of the original reindeer, but has featured in many modern aspects of the Santa Claus myth, and has been immortalized in a song which is frequently played at Christmas. As such, he is typically included as the sleigh's lead reindeer. The depiction of Santa's workshop also reflected popular opinion about industry. In some images of the early 1900s, Santa was depicted as personally making his toys by hand in a small workshop like a craftsman. Eventually, the idea emerged that he had numerous elves responsible for making the toys, but the toys were still handmade by each individual elf working in the traditional manner. By the end of the century, the reality of mass mechanized production became more fully accepted by the Western public. That shift was reflected in the modern depiction of Santa's residence—now often humorously portrayed as a fully mechanized production facility, equipped with the latest manufacturing technology, and overseen by the elves with Santa and Mrs. Claus as managers. Many TV commercials depict this as a sort of humorous business, with Santa's elves acting as a sometimes michieviously disgruntled workforce, cracking jokes and pulling pranks on their boss. A history of Santa Claus was written by L. Frank Baum, the same man who wrote the Wizard of Oz. Many Christian churches dislike the secular focus on Santa and the materialist focus that present-giving gives to the holiday. They would prefer that focus be given to the birth of Jesus, their nominal reason for the Christmas celebration. It should be noted that the festivities at this time of year are predated by the pagan Yule festivals which were subsumed within Christianity. It should also be noted that the date of Jesus' birth is not known. The connexion between Yule festival and Jesus' birth was a clerical decision (possibly in order to compete with rival religions concerning holidays during winter solstice). As an example of the still surviving pagan imagery, in Nordic countries there is the Yule goat (Swedish julbock), a somewhat startling figure with horns which however will deliver the presents in Christmas eve, and a straw goat is a common Christmas decoration.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia and from ShiningRise.com
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