Origins of Santa Claus

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The origins of Santa Claus can be traced back to a monk who lived hundreds of years ago. This monk named Nicholas is believed to have been born in the small town in an area that is now inside Turkey around 280 AD. Nicholas is said to have inherited a large sum, which he gave away. There are many legends or stories about the kindness of Nicholas the most famous, involved him providing a dowry for three sisters to prevent them from being sold into slavery or prostitution. The exact date of Nicholas death is uncertain, current belief is that it is December 6th in 345 or 352 AD, when he became known as Saint Nicholas.

After the Protestant reformation Saint Nicholas was one of the few saints to remain in good standing with the people. Saint Nicholas started to become popular in America at the end of the 18th century, when Dutch immigrants celebrated the anniversary of his death. The name Santa Claus evolved from the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas, sint Nikolaas, and eventually became shortened to Sinter Klaas. In the early 1800's New York Historical Society member John Pintard distributed woodcarvings with the images of Santa Claus, followed by Washington Irving's book The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon. At this time the images used to represent Santa Claus varied widely.

The current image we have is partly due to Episcopalian minister Clement Clarke Moore. In 1822 he wrote a poem for his children 'An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas'. This poem fleshed out many of the traits still present today as a full figured jolly bearded man, who entered houses thru the chimney. He even gave names to the Santa's eight reindeer (Rudolf comes much later) that pulled his magical red sleigh thru the air on Christmas Eve. Political cartoonist Thomas Nast filled in the remaining details of Santa's appearance in his comic strip in Harpers weekly. He gave Santa his bright red suit and hat, full white beard. He also set Santa's workshop at the North Pole, where he lived with Mrs. Claus and his toy making elves.

In the 1930's the Coca-Cola Company was looking for ways to boost it's sales in the winter months. Illustrator Haddon Sundblom created a series of advertising illustrations with Santa Claus giving, receiving and drinking Coca Cola. The marketing campaign was a success, and brought this version of Santa into pop-culture of the time. While Coca-Cola is often credited with inventing Santa or this particular version of Santa this is nothing more than an urban legend.

In the 1840's stores began to advertise for Christmas and holiday merchandise. One industrious department store in Philadelphia went as far as to make a life size statue of Santa that was visited by thousands of children. Shortly after this department stores began to have their own live Santa for children to visit.

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