For most Americans, Santa Claus has forever been a symbol of Christmas. His presence is unavoidable in shopping malls, on television and in advertisements across the country from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.
However, many people are unaware of the origin and evolution of Santa’s legend. Santa’s background incorporates religious, ethnic, literary and commercial influences, making him a classic product of American life.
“There are a lot of different sources to the legend of Santa,” Tom DuBois, UW-Madison professor of Scandinavian studies said. “But it’s a very American story.”
Santa’s ancestor
The earliest known link to Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas. Born around 280 A.D. in present-day Turkey, he was an only child of a wealthy family. He became an orphan at an early age when his parents died of the plague. He grew up in a monastery and at age 17 became a priest.
Nicholas used his inherited fortune to help children and the poor. According to legend, he saved three sisters from being sold into prostitution by providing them a dowry. Nicholas is also reputed to have anonymously thrown bags of gold down chimneys or through open windows into stockings hung by fireplaces to dry.
“He did all his deeds out of genuine religious devotion,” Rick Pinilla, pastor of University Community Church said.
Nicholas became a bishop, and after his death around 340 A.D., he was elevated to sainthood.
Accounts of his good works continued to circulate around Europe, enhanced by tales Christian author Metaphrastes wrote about him in the 10th century.
Late in the 11th century, Italian soldiers transported St. Nicholas’ remains to Bari, Italy, where they built a church in honor of him. Christian pilgrims from around the world traveled to the church.
In the 12th century, Dec. 6 was declared St. Nicholas Day, a day of gift-giving and charitable deeds.
By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe and also the most represented in artwork. Depictions of his legends exist in paintings, stained glass windows, frescoes and mosaics throughout the continent.
St. Nicholas’ reputation remained positive even during the Reformation, when the veneration of saints was discouraged. He was, however, dropped as the traditional gift-giver of the holidays due to his close ties to the Catholic Church.
Changes in character
Without a universal gift-giver, different countries and regions developed their own versions of St. Nicholas, incorporating their own traditions and characteristics into the legend.
“The stories about St. Nicholas continued to grow,” Father Steve Kortendick, pastor of St. Paul’s University Catholic Center, said. “But they changed to stories of Santa Claus.”
In England, St. Nicholas became Father Christmas, a thin, austere figure depicted with sprigs of holly, ivy or mistletoe. The legends of Scandinavian countries came to center around an elf. Holland celebrated Sinterklaas, a solemn red-clad bishop who rode a white horse.
Years later, in communist Russia, St. Nicholas was replaced by Grandfather Frost, a secular figure who wore blue instead of red.
When Dutch colonists traveled to America, they brought along the legend and celebration of Sinterklaas. In the colonies, Sinterklaas was gradually mispronounced into “Santa Claus.”
For generations, as people of different ethnicities and cultures settled in America, various traditions from the branched versions of St. Nicholas came together to form the persona of Santa Claus.
“There were a lot of ethnic heritages melding together,” DuBois said. “It was a very interesting fusion.”
The combining of traditions resulted in several heterogeneous versions of Santa Claus. But a significant force in establishing Santa’s image was Clement C. Moore’s 1823 poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” better known today as “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” The story gave depicted Santa as “Chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf.”
Most of the visual images of Santa created after the poem were derived from Moore’s verbal descriptions.
During the Civil War, political cartoonist Thomas Nast, who had produced several drawings of Santa for the cover of Harper’s Weekly, created an illustration showing Santa with the Union troops for President Lincoln. Many historians cite this as a particularly demoralizing point for the Confederate Army.
Santa’s corporate sponsorship
Although several events had taken place to form Santa’s new image, the portrayal most widely recognized today began as an advertisement. In 1931, The Coca-Cola Company commissioned artist Haddon Sundblom to create an image of Santa Claus for its holiday campaign.
Sundblom based his paintings of Santa on verses from “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” He relied on his friend as a model because, according to The Coca-Cola Company, the friend “had just the right combination of happy wrinkles in his face.”
The ads originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and National Geographic magazines. Each year for three decades, Sundblom produced at least one Santa painting for Coca-Cola.
The campaign succeeded in reinforcing a consistent likeness of Santa in the United States, due to its lengthy duration. As the ads and distribution of Coca-Cola spread worldwide, so did the image of Santa Claus.
Tom Towell, UW consumer science lecturer, said that the Coca-Cola Company was smart to use Santa in its ads.
“What safer image could you have than Santa? There are so many images of Christmas, whether it be a religious image or a festive image, but Santa kind of goes across them all,” he said.
Although Coca-Cola played an undeniable role in forming Santa’s appearance, some people believe the company is given too much credit. DuBois said the intertwining of traditions that helped create Santa took place prior to the Santa ads.
“This was happening before Coca-Cola,” he said.
Towell agreed Coca-Cola was not the only factor in determining Santa’s image, but said it did help to reinforce Santa’s importance in the holidays.
“We’d still have a Santa with or without Coke,” he said. “He’s the spirit of Christmas; Coke used him just as a reminder.”
Santa: religious or commercial?
Some people, however, believe the spirit of Christmas lies in religious traditions and practices. To them, focusing on Santa at Christmastime misses the true meaning of the holiday.
Pinilla said the general lack of religious focus in today’s holiday celebrations is not surprising.
“The loss of meaning in Christmas corresponds to the loss of Christianity in American culture,” he said. “But within the Christian community, it is a very significant time and is taken very seriously.”
UW junior Alicia Crook believes Christmas has lost its intended significance because of the focus on presents.
“I think Christmas is being too commercialized and people celebrate it without really knowing the meaning behind the traditions,” she said. “I think it has gotten to the point where kids just expect Santa to bring them presents instead of appreciating the holiday.”
Pinilla said while he finds including Santa in Christmas celebrations acceptable, focusing solely on gifts is not.
“What obscures the true meaning of Christmas is the emphasis on giving and receiving gifts,” he said.
Although the original purpose of Christmas was religious in nature, Kortendick said many of the symbols associated with the holiday are secular.
“Christmastime has a strong religious observance,” he said. “But Santa Claus doesn’t have much religious significance to it.”
Others, however, are uncertain whether Santa remains tied to Christianity. UW senior Theran Meyer said a correlation still exists.
“Santa is indirectly connected to religion,” he said. “He is a product of it, good or bad.”
Whether or not Santa Claus is considered a Christian figure, people of religions other than Christianity sometimes feel excluded by society’s emphasis on Santa during the holiday season. Irv Saposnik, adjunct assistant professor of Jewish Studies, said Jewish people might be negatively affected by the attention Santa receives.
“Santa Claus as a figure plays such a minor role in the Jewish community,” he said. “But there probably are a number of children who feel left out.”
Saposnik said that although Santa Claus evolved from a Christian saint, he no longer carries the religious significance he once did.
“Like many celebrations, there was a time when Santa was a religious figure,” he said. “Certainly religious figures have been Americanized, secularized to a great extent. Santa has gone away from being a sainted figure.”
Jewish holidays have also been secularized, Saposnik said, which may decrease feelings of being excluded from holiday celebrations, especially among children.
“Children feel less left out through the Americanization of Hanukkah,” he said. “It’s been reconstructed as a ‘Christmas alternative.’ Whether it’s a good or bad thing, I don’t know.”
Do you believe?
Regardless of religious background, many American children grow up hearing about — and often believing in — Santa Claus. For these children, discovering that Santa is not a real person can be a traumatic event. Crook said she remembers finding out the “truth” from a neighbor.
“I was crushed,” she said. “To me, Santa was almost magical. He always seemed to know where I was to bring me presents. Even when I was at my grandmother’s he brought me presents.”
In response to the questions children frequently have about Santa Claus, several scientists and mathematicians have calculated data to determine whether the legends of Santa Claus are actually plausible. According to ReligiousTolerance.org, on Christmas Eve, Santa visits 156 million homes. Based on this calculation, it follows that Santa must visit over 1,500 homes per second, drive his sleigh an average of 3.6 million miles an hour and carry 156,000 tons, or about 31 million cubic feet of cargo.
Despite these calculations, many people, both adults and children alike, believe in Santa Claus — or at least his spirit.
In 1999, Vote.com conducted a Web survey asking “Do you believe in Santa Claus?” Out of the 4,114 people who voted, 66 percent chose the option “Yes! He spreads Christmas spirit around the world,” and 34 percent chose “No! Bah, Humbug! Santa’s nothing but a marketing ploy.”
Santa’s large Internet presence also supports the notion that a number of children believe in Santa. Many Santa-related web sites provide Christmas projects and games, as well as recipes, songs and stories for children. Some sites track Santa’s Christmas Eve journey. Others have e-mail addresses for kids to e-mail Santa their Christmas lists.
Even before the Internet, Santa had long been the topic of numerous television shows and movies during the holiday season. Santa’s prevalence in the television medium makes him practically impossible for children to avoid. Crook said the magnitude of Christmas programming causes children to believe in the existence of Santa Claus.
“It is especially hard to believe that he is not real when there are so many movies and TV shows that portray Santa as being real,” she said.
Although a variety of people, events and legends have influenced the evolution of Santa Claus, the modern image is one that most Americans share. And despite differences in individuals’ ages, ethnicities and religious practices, many see Santa as an American institution.
“He’s part of the American machine,” Saposnik said.
Towell agreed that even though Santa Claus has become an important commercial commodity, he remains a powerful symbol.
“In all the hustle and bustle of life, we get away from sentimental ideas,” he said. “Santa is the annual reminder of what the season is about.”
