Once
the Dutch brought Saint Nicholas to America, he
was gradually transformed from an austere bishop
to a jolly old elf. First Washington Irving
described the saint as a plump and jolly old
Dutchman in his comic History of New York. It
provided the first literary description of Saint
Nicholas to appear in America. It poked fun at
the Dutch founders of New York and contained
numerous references to the Dutch patron saint. In
later editions of his work, Irving gave this
account of Saint Nicholas bringing gifts:
“and lo, the good St. Nicholas came riding
over the tops of the trees, in that self-same
wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to
children....And he lit his pipe by the fire and
sat himself down and smoked....And when St.
Nicholas had smoked his pipe, he twisted it in
his hatband, and laying his finger beside his
nose, gave the astonished VanKortlandt a very
significant look; then mounting his wagon, he
returned over the treetops and disappeared.”
Irving's book was a best seller of the day and
after its publication in 1809, the Saint Nicholas
legend traveled fast. At the first anniversary
for it, John Pintard and his friends at the New
York Historical Society passed out a broadside
he'd commissioned with his own money. It included
a poem, "Sancte Claus Goed
Heyligman!" ("Santa Claus, Good
Holy Man!"). It was a wood engraving by
Alexander Anderson and the first known picture of
the saint to be made in America.
In 1822 Saint Nicholas' American transformation
was given a more definitive description by a
professor named Doctor Clement Clarke
Moore. Moore, the father of several children,
presented his family with a Christmas first: the
famous poem, A Visit From Saint Nicholas, first
published in 1823. The poem quickly became
popular around the United States. Unlike the
European Saint Nicholas who was feared by naughty
children, Clement Moore inadvertently
Americanized the Old World Saint Nicholas,
turning him into "jolly Saint Nick, a plump,
happy-go-lucky elf with a sleigh full of toys and
eight flying reindeer.
Through the years, many publishers have offered
Moore's poem as an illustrated book for children.
The first one was published in 1848 by Henry M.
Onderdonk, a New York printer and bookseller, and
a friend of Clement Moore. C. Boyd did eight wood
engravings depicting sleeping children, stockings
hanging, the Christmas elf driving his miniature
team through streets and over rooftops of a
quaint old-fashioned Dutch New York, and other
familiar scenes to every illustrated edition
since. These were put together in an eight-page
pamphlet prepared as "a present for good
little boys and girls." Only two know copies
of that paperback publication have survived.
In 1860 Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus with
an illustration for Harper's Weekly. The Gregory
Company of New York contacted him with an offer
to do the illustrations for a book of Christmas
poems, including Clement Moore's. Acquiring a
copy, Nast read it repeatedly, making mental s
ketches of the character. He wanted a warm, jolly
old elf. The first Santa Claus appeared as a
small part of a large illustration titled "A
Christmas Furlough" in the December 26, 1863
issue and each Christmas following, Nast set
aside his regular news and political coverage to
a Santa Claus drawing. He provided twenty -three
years of Santa Claus until the paper changed from
a leading newsweekly into a magazine for late
nineteenth-century homemakers.
Saint Nicholas' attire has gone through as many
changes as he has. In New York City in 1865, at
midnight on Christmas night, it was reported that
Saint Nick appeared, at ball given in his honor,
in "buckskin boots of large proportions; his
pants were of a fawn color, with a blue stripe. A
vest of scarlet, with large brass buttons,
encircled a truly aldermanic paunch. A coat of
dark brown, over which was thrown an ample cloak
of scarlet and gold completed his attire. He was
laden with toys - they hung from his arms, round
his neck, his waist, and his back was heavily
freighted. Round the room he tripped good
humouredly, chuckling to himself as he
distributed his stock and trade to all." The
figure seemed to have been elicited from
Robert Walter Weir's painting and drawing at the
Military Academy of West Point.
Clement Moore had clad in him in fur, common
dress for 18th century gentlemen. In 1884, when
Santa made his entrance at the Five Points
Mission School, eight hundred wide eyed children
saw him "wrapped in a great coat of Siberian
wolf skins, over which his long beard hung down
to his knees!"
But Santa Claus was often shown dressed in green
clothes, or blue or black. When one Clement
Moore's daughters did a calligraphy of version of
her father's famous poem as a Christmas gift to
her husband, in spite of her father's words, she
dressed Saint Nicholas in a long green coat.
Modern Day Santa
It was the 1870 edition of "A Visit From
Saint Nicholas" that Saint Nicholas wore a
red cloth coat. Thomas Nast has depicted him in a
reddish brown outfit, trimmed in white ermine, in
1866. This illustration appeared in George P.
Walker's verse story "Santa Claus And His
Works" and was probably a major contributor
to the idea that Santa wore red and that he lives
in the North Pole.
In the early twentieth century, red Santa Claus
suits became popular and were sold by department
stores and through mail-order by Sears and
Roebuck.
By the mid-nineteenth century, stores called
themselves "Santa Claus Headquarters"
at Christmastime.
The Boston Store in Brockton, Massachusetts,
became the father of department store Santas when
it hired a Scottish immigrant who was tall,
roly-poly, had a white beard, a cheerful
voice and a hearty laugh, to be Santa
Claus. Before the turn of the century,
department stores across America had added
Santa Claus and even sat him on a throne.
Children sat on his knee and whispered their
secrets into his ears.
And beginning in the latter part of the eighteen
hundreds, children wrote letters to Santa Claus.
By the end of the century, post offices had
overflowed with letters to Santa every year!
Another Version Regarding The Origin of Santa
Claus:
There are many stories of how the legend of Santa
Claus began. A favorite story says that the
modern Santa finds his origin in a young pastor
named Nicholas. His parents died when he was
still a boy, leaving him a fortune. He loved the
Lord and cared deeply for those in need. Not
wanting to receive any glory himself, he went
secretly, during the night, to the homes of poor
families. There he left gifts and money because
of his love for Christ.
To
my knowledge I have abided by all of the
copywriter's laws and ethics to the
best of my abilities. If anyone has an original
composition or graphic on this page
and wish it to be removed please contact me via
e-mail.
If there is anyone I have failed to acknowledge
please excuse the oversight
and contact me with the appropriate information
so that proper credits may
be promptly given.
