How the Legend of Santa Claus Came to Be

Christmas time is perhaps the most magical time of year for most people. The scent of favorite baked treats fill the kitchen at grandma's house. Beloved family members and friends arrive with each chime of the door bell. A crackling fireplace and hot cocoa. Christmas music gently playing in the background. Plenty of laughter and hugs to go around. Gifts under the tree. Snow angels. Sledding. The lights. The Christmas tree. The hustle and bustle of last-minute shopping, and random acts of kindness. As if this is not enough, the anticipation of Santa Claus preparing to make his journey around the world with toys and treats for good little boys and girls keeps them gazing out the window into the starry sky.

Most of us know who Santa is- but where did he come from? American's make such a fuss about Santa Claus that it's difficult to imagine that he wasn't always part of the traditional holiday and that he was not the reason for Christmas as we know it.

It might come as a surprise that our Santa Claus probably came from the Dutch legend of Sinter Klaas, which was brought by settlers to New York sometime during the 17th century.

In 1773, the name for Santa Claus appeared in the American Press as St. A Claus. Later, a popular author named Washington Irving introduced some more information about Santa Claus in his book, History of New York which was published in 1809. In this book, he described an elf-like saint on horseback that would arrive on each eve of Saint Nicholas.

Clement Clarke later wrote a poem in 1823 called A Visit from St. Nicholas, which we now know as 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. Of course, this poem revealed even more insight to the legendary, magical Santa Claus such as the eight tiny reindeer and their names. He also described Santa's "HO-HO-HO" laugh, the winks, the nods, the chimney and the infamous sleigh.

During the 1860's to the 1880's, Thomas Nast began to depict Santa Claus in Harpers Magazines as a robust man instead of an elf. His Santa Claus wore a long, white beard and was dressed in red with white fur trimmings. It was Nast who added the workshop as the place where toys are made and the North Pole as Santa Claus' residence. He also added the idea of Santa Claus keeping a list of boys and girls to see who was being naughty or nice.

As we mentioned, the eight tiny reindeer were brought to life-so to speak- by Clarke in 1823....but Rudolph was not added into the mix until 1939. Rudolph made his first appearance during an advertising campaign, created by JW Parkinson for the Montgomery Ward Company.

This was perhaps the end of the "creation" era for the legendary Santa Claus. However, this story dates back much earlier than what was mentioned above.

Obviously, Santa Claus has been around for awhile according to variations of the story from countries all around the world However, the Christian-era Santa Claus is probably the one that the Dutch-American Santa Claus fits closest. His name was Bishop Nicholas of Smyrna (Turkey). He lived sometime around the 4th century A.D. It is said that Bishop Nicholas was a very wealthy, but exceedingly generous man- especially toward less fortunate young children. Legend has it that he would go around and toss gifts in through their windows to cheer them up.

Later, the Orthodox church raised St.Nicholas as a miracle worker to a position of high regard. In fact, it is for his names sake that the oldest church in Russia was built. St. Nicolas' name day is no December 6th.

As I mentioned before, Santa has been around for quite some time in similar stories like ours. For example, France tells the story of Pere Noel. England has Father Christmas. There are certainly many others to be told about.

As the story goes with the American Santa Claus: Kids are often much smarter than we give them credit for. When children began to learn that Santa Claus lived at the North Pole, some began to wonder how realistic it would be for Santa's reindeer to graze if it were covered with snow and there was no grass available for the poor animals. So in 1925, newspapers began to announce that Santa Claus actually lives in the Finnish Lapland.

Markus Rautio (Uncle Markus) who composed the ever-popular "Children's Hour" on Finnish Public Radio finally revealed the more specific anticipated secret for the first time in 1927: Santa lives on the Lapland's Korvatunturi!

The Korvatunturi is also known as the "Ear Fell" and is located on the eastern frontier. It somewhat resembles a rabbits ear, which are supposed to be Santa Claus' ears. Conveniently, he uses them to listen to the children of the world to find out if they are being good or bad - just as it suggests in the well loved children's jingle, "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town".

Thinking about the story of Santa Claus is fun for children of all ages. But let's not forget that the real reason for the season is to celebrate the greatest gift of all, which was given by God to mankind...His only son, Jesus- by whom all men (and women!) can have eternal salvation. John 3:16

Merry Christmas!

Sources:

http://www.chs.riverview.wednet.edu/Staff/Hall/Holiday%20Projects/blankenshipk_santa/Santa_3.htm Clement Clarke Moore's "Twas The Night Before Christmas"

www.the-north-pole.com

www.wikipedia.org