Everyone knows about Santa Claus, his elves, and his reindeer but do you know where/ when he first started to appear? There are a lot of stories that combine to show how we came to know called a kind Saint named Santa Claus.
A monk named St. Nicholas was born in 280 A.D. IN Patara in modern day Turkey. He was religious and kind and he became the subject of many legends. It was said that he gave away his wealth and time to help poor and sick people all over the world. He was also said to have saved three women from being sold into slavery by providing them money to get married. Because of this he became known as the savior of women and sailors. After his death on December 8th, a Feast Day was celebrated every year on that day. This day was considered lucky; a good day to make big purchases or get married.
During the Renaissance, he was the most popular Saint in Europe. He first became a part of popular culture in America at the end of the 18th century in December of 1773 and 1774. Dutch families gathered to honor the anniversary of his death. His name went from Saint Nicholas to Sint Nikolaas to Sinter Klass.
In 1809, Washington Irving referred to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York in his book, The History of New York. Giving gifts has been an important part of the Christmas celebration since the 19th century and stores began advertising Christmas shopping in 1820 and twenty years later newspapers and stores advertised Christmas with pictures of Santa Claus.
Clement Clarke Moore wrote, 'A Visit from St. Nicholas' in 1822 for his three daughters, little did he know it would become so immensely popular. In the poem he describes Santa as a "right jolly old elf" with special powers. This poem gave us the image we now have of Santa Claus. In 1881, Thomas Nast (a political cartoonist) drew the first likeness that matches our image of Santa Claus today. The cartoon appeared in a newspaper called Harper's Weekly. This created a new, popular figure to use for the holiday season to sell toys and get everyone in the holiday spirit.
In the early 1890's, the Salvation Army needed more money to help pay for the free meals they gave to needy families and they had their workers dress as Santa Claus on the streets of New York to ask for donations. They have done this every holiday season since then.
Christ Kind, Kris Kringle, Jultomten, Father Christmas, Pere Noel, Babouschka, La Befana, and Santa Claus are some of the different names there are for St. Nicholas in different countries. Each image of St. Nicholas has it's own history and each has its own reason for giving children gifts every year during the holiday season.
Robert L. May introduced us to Rudolph the Red- Nosed Reindeer in 1939 when he wrote a poem to lure people into his department store, the Montgomery Ward, during the holiday season. He sold half a million copies of the book and we got the first image of Rudolph there has ever been. May's friend, Johnny Marks, wrote a song in 1949 based off Rudolph's story which we all still listen to today. Soon after there was a movie released about Rudolph, Santa Claus, and an elf named Hermey. There have been countless other movies about elves, reindeer, Santa Claus and his wife but this was the one that first introduced us to all of them on the big screen.
There are many other stories of how Santa Claus became the figure we see in store windows and in movies today, but this is the one we are most familiar with. No matter where the story came from, having a kind saint to think of during a the holiday season is comforting. We get to forget our troubles and look forward to the presents that will be under our Christmas trees, the time we have off from work and school, and the company of our family and friends during a time of giving and love.
