Who is Santa Claus and where does he come from?
Who is Santa Claus and where does he come from?
The Santa Claus hasn’t always looked the way he does today. He has had many different shapes and even now he might look different in some countries. The Santa Claus most of us know today is the big jolly Santa Claus with red trousers and a red coat. His hat is also red and he usually has a black belt and black boots. Many of the traditions we have today come from Germany and Holland and have all been melted together in the USA during the 20th century as immigrants from the Old World celebrated in the New World.
Originally Santa Claus goes back to Bishop St. Nicholas of Myra, which is located in modern day Turkey. He lived during the 4th century in Byzantine, which was Christian at that time. He was said to have been very kind and generous to children and poor people. Therefore he has become their patron saint.
One of the earliest stories about Saint Nicholas illustrates some of the modern day traditions. Give to those more unfortunate than us and hang a stocking at the fire place.
According to the legend a poor family in Italy had three daughters. The father couldnøt afford to give a dowry for two of the daughters and therefore contemplated selling one of his daughters. When Saint Nicholas heard about this he passed by late one evening and dropped 3 bags of gold down the chimney. By coincidence the three bags fell into the three stockings of the girls. They were hanging near the fireplace to dry. Because of his good hard the family could now afford the dowries for all 3 girls. This is one tradition we all can recognize. Hanging stockings at the fireplace and Santa Claus bringing gifts in the night. 
Saint Nicholas is the patron saint for children, poor people, seamen and even thieves, students and pawnbrokers have adopted him.
St. Nicholas died on the 6. of December and it used to be celebrated as the coming of the winter in the middle ages. In Holland they still celebrate this day and get gifts on the 6. of December. Children would place food for him at night and next morning find that it would have been replaced by gifts like candies and toys.
After the reformation it was banned to celebrate the catholic saints and Christmas was actually banned in in The UK and some of the States in the USA for a long time. Since the people in the now protestant countries were used to celebrate St. Nicholas it was merged with the Christmas celebrations and now the gift giving took on an entire new morning
Santa Claus has got different name in different countries. In Denmark they call him Julemanden, in Sweden Jultomten, in England Father Christmas, in Germany Weihnachtsmann and in France he is known as Pèrè Noël.
As mentioned the modern day Christmas owes a lot to all the immigrants who came to the USA and brought their traditions. From Scandinavia we get the elves or Santa bringing gifts. From Germany we get the decorated Christmas tree and the Irish brought the old Gaelic tradition of placing lit candles in the windows.
Around 1600 the dutch brought Sinterklaas (ductch for Santa Claus) to America. They lived in Now Amsterdam, which later became New York. When the english speaking colonists tried to say Sinterklaas it became Santa Claus.
In 1808 came a new version with Santa flying over the tree tops dropping gifts in the chimneys. The sleigh was pulled by horses at that time. An important write was Irving who wrote about the happy dutchman who smoked a long pipe…
The most important story to come out of the USA was written by Dr. Clement Clarke Moore. “A Visit from St. Nicholas” or better known as “The Night Before Christmas.” He gave Santa Claus the reindeer and told us what the modern Santa Claus looked like. A small round belly, which moved as jelly, when he laughed…
Until then Santa Claus had been wearing different costumes. It was a German immigrant Thomas Nast, who in 1863, gave us the final picture of what Santa Claus looked like.
When Nast was asked to illustrate Moore’s poems for a childrens book, he made more kind, friendly and jolly, but still an older gentleman. More important Nast told us that Santa Claus lives on the North Pole. He drew Santa Claus for 23 years for Harpers Weekly.
Haddon Sundblom came up with the final picture of Santa Claus when he was making posters and billboard designs for the Coca-Cla Company. His Santa Claus became the jolliest of them all and Santa Claus owes Coca-Cola a lot of his widespread fame across the World..
So the modern day Santa Claus is realy a hotpodge of different cultures and traditions, which have melted together to this jolly old fellow, who brings joy to the World.
Read more on these sites:
Santa’s Blog – click here
Pasko.ph – Click here
