The story of Santa ClausLooking back to where it all began

Santa Claus is a figure said to have first appeared in Turkey around the 4th century

where he was first known as Saint Nicholas. The name was given after a Turkish

bishop who was supposed to be extremely wealthy and it is said that he used to

throw gold coins down the chimney of the poor noblemen who weren’t able to ensure

their daughters a proper dowry and those golden coins magically landed into the

stockings that were left to dry by the fire.

Other stories tell that Nicholas didn’t help only the poor unmarried girls, but also

other children and sailors as well. After his death, Nicholas was canonized and thus

he is now known as the protector saint of all children. He is now celebrated on the

6th of December.

You are now about to start a beautiful journey

back to where it all supposedly started, to the

very roots of Santa Claus’s story.

In time Saint Nicholas’ feast slowly started being associated

with the newly established date of Jesus’ birth celebration, on

the 25th of December and soon they became practically one

and the same feast in almost all of Europe.

One of the countries that made an exception on Saint

Nicholas’s celebration was Holland, where he was

called Sinter Klaas. It’s getting pretty easy to guess where

this story is going, isn’t it? When the celebration of Sinter

Klaas reached the United Stated of America, its name was

converted to Sancte Claus, and from there it was only one

step to the name we all know today, Santa Claus. So Santa

Claus was actually Saint Nicholas at first, he was not always

celebrated on the 25th of December and he reached the

United States thanks to the Dutch.

It is said that the very first image of Santa Claus or at least

how people in the United States first pictured him, was of a

tall thin man. Apparently, Clement Moore’s poem The night

before Christmaswas the first one to illustrate and provide a

clear image of Santa to the people, but surprisingly this

image was completely different from what people had in their

minds up until that moment.

Santa Claus was not at all a thin man, but on the contrary, he was

actually a little fat jolly man, who flew from house to house to

bring gifts to children on Christmas Eve, with the help of eight

reindeers. 

Santa Claus’s looks didn’t stay like this, of course. Later on in the

19th century, a cartoonist named Thomas Nast added some new

details to Santa Claus’s representation in his drawings and even

created a home for him at the North Pole. Back home, Santa was

also given a place where he builds the toys for the children and

also a big book where all the children’s names were supposed to

be written and divided into naughty or nice categories. Also,

Santa was represented wearing various outfits, of different colors

from purple and green to blue until it finally reached the red one

he is wearing today. But to sum up, Thomas Nast was the one who

gave the image of the Santa Claus we all know nowadays; the fat

happy man wearing this red suit and a great white beard and a

funny-looking hat. What most people also don’t know is how

Santa Claus became so popular and how he became such a big

part in a brand new culture – this is mainly a result encouraged by

intense advertising. Even more, Santa Claus appeared for the first

time as a human sized figure in Coca-Cola’s advertisements.

Furthermore Rudolph got his cute red nose a few years later, also

from an advertiser.

But in the end, thin or fat, dressed in green or in red, protector of children, unmarried girls and sailors, Santa Claus is an important figure in our lives, regardless of how old we are. Santa’s the one who makes children happy every year by bringing them beautiful gifts and who makes parents happy by teaching their children the value of being good. So we should all try our best to keep him into our lives by all means possible: gifts, traditions and, of course, greeting cards – for as long as we can. 

Your friends from Egreetings.com