|
Today's
Santa Claus was inspired by Saint Nicholas of Myra who was was a
4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra in Lycia, a province of
the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his
generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three
impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that
they would not have to become prostitutes. He was very religious
from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity. In
Europe (more precisely the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and
Germany) he is still portrayed as a bearded bishop in canonical
robes. In 1087, the Italian city of Bari, wanting to enter the
profitable pilgrimage industry of the times, mounted an expedition
to locate the tomb of the Christian Saint and procure the remains.
The reliquary of St. Nicholas was desecrated by Italian sailors and
the spoils, including his relics, taken to Bari where they are
kept to this day. A basilica was constructed the same year to store
the loot and the area became a pilgrimage site for the devout, thus
justifying the economic cost of the expedition. Saint Nicholas
became claimed as a patron saint of many diverse groups, from
archers and children to pawnbrokers. He is also the patron saint of
both Amsterdam and Moscow.
Pre-modern representations of the
gift-giver from church history and folklore merged with the British
character Father Christmas to create the character known to Britons
and Americans as Santa Claus. Father Christmas dates back at least
as far as the 17th century in Britain, and pictures of him survive
from that era, portraying him as a well-nourished bearded man
dressed in a long, green, fur-lined robe. He typified the spirit of
good cheer at Christmas, and was reflected in the "Ghost of
Christmas Present" in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
American origins
In the British colonies of North America and later the United
States, British and Dutch versions of the gift-giver merged further.
For example, in Washington Irving's History of New York, (1809),
Sinterklaas was Americanized into "Santa Claus" but lost his
bishop's apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch
sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. Irving's book was a
lampoon of the Dutch culture of New York, and much of this portrait
is his joking invention.
Modern ideas of Santa Claus seemingly became canon after the
publication of the poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (better known
today as "The Night Before Christmas") in the Troy, New York,
Sentinel on December 23, 1823 anonymously; the poem was later
attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. In this poem Santa is
established as a heavyset man with eight reindeer (who are named for
the first time). One of the first artists to define Santa Claus's
modern image was Thomas Nast, an American cartoonist of the 19th
century. In 1863, a picture of Santa illustrated by Nast appeared in
Harper's Weekly.
Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus with an illustration for the
January 3, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly.
Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus with an illustration for the
January 3, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly.
In the late 19th century, a group of Sami people moved from Finnmark
in Norway to Alaska, together with 500 reindeer to teach the Inuit
to herd reindeer. The Lomen Company then used several of the Sami
together with reindeer in a commercial campaign. Reindeer pulled
sleds with a Santa, and one Sami leading each reindeer. The American
commercial Santa Claus, coming from the North Pole with reindeer was
born.
L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, a 1902
children's book, further popularized Santa Claus. Much of Santa
Claus's mythos was not set in stone at the time, leaving Baum to
give his "Neclaus" (Necile's Little One) a wide variety of immortal
support, a home in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho, and ten reindeer
which could not fly, but leapt in enormous, flight-like bounds.
Claus's immortality was earned, much like his title ("Santa"),
decided by a vote of those naturally immortal. This work also
established Claus's motives: a happy childhood among immortals. When
Ak, Master Woodsman of the World, exposes him to the misery and
poverty of children in the outside world, Santa strives to find a
way to bring joy into the lives of all children, and eventually
invents toys as a principal means. Santa Claus Wallpaper
Images of Santa Claus were further popularized through Haddon
Sundblom's depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company's Christmas
advertising in the 1930s. The popularity of the image spawned urban
legends that Santa Claus was in fact invented by
Coca-Cola
or that Santa wears red and white because those are the Coca-Cola
colors. In reality, Coca-Cola was not even the first soft drink
company to utilize the modern image Santa Claus in its advertising –
White Rock Beverages used Santa in advertisements for its ginger ale
in 1923 after first using him to sell mineral water in 1915.
Furthermore, the massive campaign by Coca-Cola simply popularized
the depiction of Santa as wearing red and white, in contrast to the
variety of colours he wore prior to that campaign; red and white was
originally given by Nast.
The image of Santa Claus as a benevolent character became reinforced
with its association with charity and philanthropy, particularly
organizations such as the Salvation Army. Volunteers dressed as
Santa Claus typically became part of fundraising drives to aid needy
families at Christmas time.
In 1889, the poet Katherine Lee Bates created a wife for Santa, Mrs.
Claus, in the poem "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride." The 1956
popular song by George Melachrino, "Mrs. Santa Claus," helped
standardize and establish the character and role in the popular
imagination.
In some images of the early 20th century, Santa was depicted as
personally making his toys by hand in a small workshop like a
craftsman. Eventually, the idea emerged that he had numerous elves
responsible for making the toys, but the toys were still handmade by
each individual elf working in the traditional manner.
The concept of Santa Claus continues to inspire writers and artists,
as in author Seabury Quinn's 1948 novel Roads, which draws from
historical legends to tell the story of Santa and the origins of
Christmas. Other modern additions to the "mythology" of Santa
include Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the ninth and lead reindeer
immortalized in a Gene Autry song, written by a Montgomery Ward
copywriter.
By the end of the 20th century,
the reality of mass mechanized production became more fully accepted
by the Western public. That shift was reflected in the modern
depiction of Santa's residence—now often humorously portrayed as a
fully mechanized production and distribution facility, equipped with
the latest manufacturing technology, and overseen by the elves with
Santa and Mrs. Claus as executives and/or managers. An excerpt from
a 2004 article, from a supply chain managers' trade magazine, aptly
illustrates this depiction:
Santa's main distribution center is a sight to behold. At 4,000,000
square feet (370,000 m2), it's one of the world's largest
facilities. A real-time warehouse management system is of course
required to run such a complex. The facility makes extensive use of
task interleaving, literally combining dozens of DC activities (putaway,
replenishing, order picking, sleigh loading, cycle counting) in a
dynamic queue...the DC elves have been on engineered standards and
incentives for three years, leading to a 12% gain in
productivity...The WMS and transportation system are fully
integrated, allowing (the elves) to make optimal decisions that
balance transportation and order picking and other DC costs.
Unbeknownst to many, Santa actually has to use many sleighs and fake
Santa drivers to get the job done Christmas Eve, and the TMS
optimally builds thousands of consolidated sacks that maximize cube
utilization and minimize total air miles.
Many television commercials,
comic strips and other media depict this as a sort of humorous
business, with Santa's elves acting as a sometimes mischievously
disgruntled workforce, cracking jokes and pulling pranks on their
boss. For instance, an early Bloom County story has Santa telling
the story of how his elves went on strike, only to be fired by
Ronald Reagan and replaced by unemployed aircraft control
personnel.
Another recent depiction can be found in the 2007 film Fred Claus, a
comedy starring Vince Vaughan in the title role as the sarcastic
older brother to Santa (played by Paul Giamatti.) Fred visits his
brother at the North Pole and, under the guidance of Santa and the
elves (some who act as Santa's bodyguards), helps deliver the
Christmas toys.
NORAD, the joint Canadian-American military organization responsible
for air defense, regularly reports tracking Santa Claus every year. |
