History of Santa Claus

Irrespective of whether you are a child or an adult, it is impossible to imagine Christmas without the legendary Santa Claus - a plump, jolly-natured, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white cuffs and collars who moves around the world giving gifts to the children on the night before Christmas. As a child you must have spent quite a lot of time thinking, 's Santa Claus real?' As you grew up that question must have been replaced by, 'How did the legend of Santa Claus must have come into existence?' In a bid to find an answer to this very question, we delved into the history this tradition, and the information we came across was quite amazing in itself.

Santa Claus History

In the United States and Canada he is known as Santa Claus, while in United Kingdom he is more popular as Father Christmas. Even today, children across the world wait for Santa to get them their well-deserved gift. (No wonder, the children spend their whole year wondering, 'when Santa Claus will return?'.) While children wait for their gifts, adults wait for this moment because it makes Christmas celebration even more special. Even though the aforementioned description of Santa Claus aptly describes how we see him today, it has not always been the same. Whilst going through the history, you'd realize that the Santa Claus legend has come a long way to become what it is depicted as today. Given below is a summary of Santa Claus history which will give you the details of the journey of this legendary figure throughout the history.

St. Nicholas and Sinterklaas
The American Santa Claus draws inspiration from St. Nicholas of Myra, as well as the legends of Sinterklaas and Father Christmas from Europe. 'St. Nicholas' of Myra (present day Turkey which was then under the Byzantine Empire) was 4th century Greek Christian bishop renowned for his practice of giving gifts for the poor. One of the numerous legends about this great saint shows how he helped a poor man to marry off his three daughters by gifting away three bags of gold coin to him. St. Nicholas has been an inspiration for the Americanized Santa and so is 'Sinterklaas' - a legendary figure associated with Winter Holiday in various European countries. These European countries celebrate Sinterklaas tradition every year on 5th December (i.e. St. Nicholas eve) or on the early morning of 6th December. Yet another mythical figure which is closely associated with the legend of Santa Claus is 'Father Christmas' - a symbolic figure associated with Christmas celebrations in English speaking countries. Even though Father Christmas was considered to be a symbol of the spirit of Christmas celebrations just like the Santa - he never got Christmas gifts for children like Santa did. More recently, however, the two figures have been associated with each other, thus making differentiation very difficult.

Odin from Norse Mythology
While St. Nicholas, Sinterklaas and Father Christmas have been the most prominent influences for the legend of Santa, there are citations of many other influential figures in the history with whom the Santa Claus has been closely associated. One such figure is Odin (Woden) - a god from the Norse mythology who ruled the heavenly dwelling of the Norse gods Asgard. According to a popular folklore, when Odin used to hunt on his flying horse - Sleipnir, in the sky; the children used to place their boots filled with carrots and straw near the chimney for Sleipnir to eat. Odin used to give these children toys and candies as gifts in return for this favor. The practice of keeping boots near chimney flourished in Europe for a long time, and eventually made headway in the United States in the 17th century through New Amsterdam - which was then a Dutch colony. Eventually boots were replaced by stockings, and thus came into existence a new Christmas tradition of hanging stockings at the fireplace.

The Legend of Santa Claus in America
In the 17th century, this legendary figure made its way to the United States and Canada though the Dutch and British colonies. In the United States, the image of Santa Claus received a major makeover as the American cultural influence made him more than a mere gift-giver. The fist instance of the use of name 'Santa Claus' by the American media can be traced back to 1773. By 1809, the bishop's apparel worn by Sinterklaas had long gone, and the Americanized version represented Santa as a Dutch sailor with a thick belly and a green coat. As time elapsed, the thick belly became even thicker and Santa became a plump old man wearing a red and white coat. The modern image of Santa Claus - the one with which we tend to associate Santa today, is attributed to some of the most popular works of the 19th century American cartoonist - Thomas Nast. In fact, the story that Santa lives at the North Pole is also attributed to one of Nast's works.

Even though the history of Santa is quite interesting in itself, it is at times marred by some urban legends - the most popular among which is the myth that Santa Claus was a Coca Cola Company creation. Even though, Santa was used as a brand ambassador by Coca Cola Company in 1930s (and he does wear a red and white coat which are the colors used by this company,) concept is not at all its own creation. This may come as a surprise for many, but long before Coca Cola's Santa came into the picture, brand Santa was used by the White Rock Beverages to market their products. Even though the legend of Santa is traced back to several centuries, the concept continues to inspire writers, artists, and more importantly children - to good deeds, even today. After all, every child aspires to see his name in Santa's 'nice list', and not in the 'naughty list'!