The Origin of St. Nicholas and Santa Claus

Christmastime is almost here and the air will be filled with joy and cheer. Tradition says that all across America, children find it hard to sleep on the eve of Dec. 24 as they eagerly wait a visit from Santa Claus.

Santa folklore says he comes from the North Pole in his sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. The children wake up on Christmas morning to find gifts that Santa has left for them in their stockings and under the Christmas tree.

But how did the tradition of Santa Claus get started in the United States? How did Santa Claus become a cultural icon at Christmas time?
The story of Santa Claus begins with St. Nicholas. A bishop who lived in the 4th century (A.D. 300) in Myra, what is now Turkey, he was known as a kind man who gave money and gifts to the poor.

The most famous story about St. Nicholas involves a poor man who had three daughters. According to biography.com, the man could not marry off any of his daughters because he had no money for dowries. One night, Nicholas secretly dropped three bags of gold down the man’s chimney. The bags landed in the stockings that had been hung by the fire to dry. This extraordinary act of kindness started the tradition of gift giving at the feast of St. Nicholas held on Dec. 6 in many European countries.

According to orthodoxwiki.org, legend has St. Nicholas as the patron saint of archers, sailors and children throughout the centuries after his death in mid-300 A.D.

St. Nicholas became known by different names in Europe, but all referred to a kindly old man who delivered gifts at Christmas time. In England and France, he became known as Father Christmas. In the Netherlands, he was known as “Sinterklaas” or Kris Kringle.

Sinterklass was later changed to Santa Claus when the celebration of St. Nicholas reached America, according to news.nationalgeographic.com. The celebration of the feast of St. Nicholas was brought to America by early Dutch and German colonists in the 17th century, attribution.

With the publication of Washington Irving’s work in 1809 “Knickerbocker’s History of New York,” St. Nicholas soon became very popular in New York, where many Dutch and German immigrants settled.

The image of Santa Claus as a big jolly fellow in a red suit originated in early 19th-century America. The publication of the poem, “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (better known today as “The Night Before Christmas”) in December 1823, created the Santa Claus icon in America.

The poem, written by Clement C. Moore, described a jolly, fat man with a beard. He wore a red suit, came down the chimney and had a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. The cartoonist Thomas Nast immortalized Santa as a bearded man in a red suit who lived at the North Pole when he drew cartoons of Santa Claus for Harper’s Weekly in 1863. In 1889, the poet Katherine Lee Bates published the poem, “Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride,” first mentioning Santa’s wife in the United States.

The 20th century saw an evolution in department stores in America with the commercialism of Christmas starting. Soon, every department store in the United States was hiring actors to play Santa Claus and having them pose for photographs with children, according to answers.google.com.