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The
original Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, was born in the ancient
southeastern Turkish town of Lycia early in the  fourth
century. His generosity was legend, and he was particularly
fond of children. We know this primarily through Roman accounts
of his patronage of youth, which eventually led to his becoming
the patron saint of children. Throughout the Middle Ages,
and well beyond, he was referred to by many names none of
them Santa Claus.
Children today would not at all recognize the St. Nick who
brought gifts to European children hundreds of years ago except
perhaps for his cascading white beard. He made his rounds
in full red-and-white bishop's robes, complete with twin peaked
miter and crooked crozier. He was pulled by no fleet footed
reindeer, but coaxed in indolent donkey. And he arrived not
late on Christmas Eve, but on his Christian feast day, December
6. The gifts he left beside the hearth were usually small:
fruit, nuts, hard candies, wood and clay figurines.
During the Protestant Reformation
of the sixteenth century, St. Nicholas was banished from most
European countries. Replacing him were more secular figures,
who in general were not at center stage at that point in history..The
Dutch kept the St. Nicholas tradition alive. As the "protector
of sailors," St. Nicholas graced the prow of the first
Dutch ship that arrived in America. And the first church built
in New York City was named after him. The Dutch brought with
them to the New World two Christmas items that were quickly
Americanized.
In sixteenth century Holland,
children placed wooden shoes by the hearth the night of St.
Nicholas's arrival. The shoes were filled with straw, a meal
for the saint's gift laden donkey. In return, Nicholas would
insert a small treat into each clog. In America, the shoe was
replaced with the stocking, hung by the chimney.
The Dutch spelled St. Nicholas
"Saint Nikolass," which in the New World became
"Sinterklass". later changed to "Santa Claus".
Much of modern day Santa
Claus lore, including the reindeer drawn sleigh, originated
in America. Dr. Clement Clarke Moore composed "The Night
Before Christmas" in 1822, to read to his children on
Christmas Eve. The poem might have remained privately in the
Moore family if a friend had not mailed a copy of it (without
authorial attribution) to a newspaper and became part of the
Santa legend.
It was in America that Santa
put on weight. The rosy-cheeked, roly-poly Santa is credited
to the influential nineteenth-century cartoonist Thomas Nast.
From 1863 until 1886, Nast created a series of Christmas drawings
for Harper's Weekly. These drawings, executed over twenty
years, exhibit a gradual evolution in Santa from the pudgy,
diminutive, elf-like creature of Dr. Moore's immortal poem
to the bearded, potbellied, life-size bell ringer familiar
on street corners across America today. Nast's cartoons also
showed the world how Santa spent his entire year constructing
toys, checking on children's behavior, reading their requests
for special gifts. His images were incorporated into the Santa
lore.
Santa is known throughout
the world in many different names, such as:
Saint Nikolaas (Sinter Klaas),
from the Dutch Father Christmas, from the English Kris Kringle,
from the Germans Befana, from the Italians Bobouschka, from
the Russians (a grand motherly figure instead of a male)
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