Turn on your television, open a magazine or Christmas flyer and you’ll see that Jolly Old Elf hawking everything from stocking stuffers to expensive jewelry. Santa gives advice on what your best girl would like under the tree or which 3-D video game you should buy for your nephew. He’s portrayed as a chubby cheeked, big bellied man with long white hair and a flowing white beard, dressed in a fur trimmed red velvet suit. He might be riding in a polished sleigh pulled by eight reindeer or behind the wheel of a shiny, red Mercedes Benz. For the entire month of December the image of Santa Claus is used by the marketing community as a high-powered, high tech spokes model to inspire confidence in the consumer because, really, would Santa steer you wrong? I’m not very happy about this sad turn of events. To me Santa Claus is so much more than a salesman.
Our modern day Santa has evolved from the legendary 4th century Turkish Bishop, St. Nicholas of Myra. He was known for his piousness, kindness and generosity, especially to the poor. The Germanic people looked to Odin as their inspiration for the Spirit of Christmas. Odin rode an eight legged flying horse, reminiscent of Santa’s eight reindeer, and children would fill their shoes with straw and carrots for the horse to eat and leave them near the chimney. For their kindness the children would be rewarded with little gifts and sweets. The tradition of hanging stockings near the fireplace may have come from this legendary practice. In the Netherlands children look to Sinterklaas and his helper known as Black Peter to leave them gifts of chocolates and nuts if they have been kind and well-behaved. The gifts are dropped through the chimney as Sinterklaas rides over the rooftops on this white steed. Naughty children just might get switched by his aids who carry jute bags and willow canes. The British have Father Christmas who resembles the Jolly Old Elf of the modern day Claus, though he traditionally wore green robes.
The story of Santa Claus that we are most familiar with today comes from a poem first published in the Troy, New York Sentinel in 1923 called “A Visit From Saint Nicholas” written by Clement Clark Moore. The Spirit of Christmas drives his sleigh pulled by eight reindeer around the world appearing from the atmosphere and delivering gifts to all good children everywhere. It is only the luckiest of humans who get a glimpse of this larger than life legend. The image that most Americans identify with Santa Claus was created forty years later by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly. In the 1930s Hadden Sundbloms fleshed out Nast’s engravings when he designed the Coca-Cola advertising campaign that featured the portly bearded man drinking a frosty bottle of Coke. This is the image of Santa that we know and love today.
Religious and secular traditions through the centuries have melded together to bring us a kind, good natured, rotund, fur wearing, pipe smoking, sleigh riding, gift giving spirit who embodies the kindness and generosity we human beings so strive for. Santa Claus represents all that is good about the human condition. I don’t know about you, but I am a true believer. Each Christmas Eve I look up into the sky and wonder where he is right now. Like the boy from the Polar Express, even though I’ve seen decades of Christmases I can still hear the sound of the silver Christmas Bell. I know in my heart that it will ring for me forever. I hope you can hear it too.
The Santa Claus postcards above are from the Brian Bossier Collection at the Curt Teich Postcard Archives.
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