Season's greetings history lovers and welcome or welcome back to the channel, where I bring
you new videos every week on all aspects of the past. Today on History Calling we’re
looking at the history of Santa Claus and answering such burning questions as where
did Santa Claus come from, why does he have reindeer, how can he fit down a chimney and
crucially, what inspired his outfit and is Santa Claus dressed like a coke bottle? Along
the way we’ll look at the history of Saint Nicholas, who was the original inspiration
for this famous Christmas character and see how he went from Saint to Santa.
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me on Instagram where my username is History Calling. There’s a link for that in the
description box, along with information on some of the sources I’ve used during my
research for today’s video, if you’d like to learn more about Santa Claus and Christmas.
The history of Santa Claus starts in the 4th century AD in what is now Turkey with this
man, Saint Nicholas. We actually know very little about him, except that he was Bishop
of Myra during that century. A huge number of legends grew up around him in the centuries
after his death however, including one that out of the goodness of his heart, he secretly
provided dowry money for the three daughters of a poor man so that they could marry, rather
than be sold into slavery. Another is that he resurrected three boys who had been robbed,
murdered and pickled by an evil innkeeper whilst on their way to meet Nicholas and this
is why we see them rising out of the pickling caskets in this image. In general the tales
around him focused on his goodness, generosity and special kindness to children, though he
also became known as a Saint who would protect sailors and travellers, among others.
He was traditionally said to have died on 6 December, with 343 a popular, but disputed
year for this event to have occurred. As a result, 6 December became the date on which
he was remembered, just as the life of St Patrick is celebrated on 17 March for the
same reason (see my video on him for another example of how the lives of Saints are celebrated).
As Christianity spread throughout Europe, so too did the cult of St Nicholas and by
1087, he was so famous that his supposed bones were stolen from Myra by a group of merchants
from the Italian city of Bari who were hoping to make their home more appealing for pilgrims.
These bones were supposedly found in his white marble tomb floating in sweet smelling holy
liquid and when taken to Bari, miracles began to occur there as hordes of physically and
mentally unwell people flocked to the remains and were healed. If you’d like to know more,
I’ll leave a link for a contemporary description of this theft (which is called a translation
by the author) in the description box. In Bari, a swanky church was built for Nicholas
and his bones were buried within it where you can still visit them today.
Do the Italians really have Nicholas though? A 2018 article from National Geographic (linked
below) lists numerous places all over the world in which the remains, or parts of them
could be interred. Bari is on the list, alongside Venice (as Venetian tomb raiders apparently
found some bits the Italians had left behind in Myra) and even Myra itself, now called
Demre, has staked a claim, as questions have been raised as to whether the correct skeleton
was ever stolen from his original tomb in the first place. There are also supposedly
bits of him as far afield as Illinois, Russia and France. With so many competing claims,
I’ll leave you to decide what you believe.
Nicholas’ apparent benevolence, especially towards children gradually gave rise during
the medieval period to a tradition in Europe of parents giving gifts to their children
on or around his saint’s day on 6 December, though he was remembered in different ways
in different countries. In the Netherlands for instance, he was known as Sinter Klaas,
was dressed as a bishop and was credited with riding a white horse across the rooftops to
leave presents for children in their shoes. When the Reformation came, Protestants were
not in favour of the idea of Saints, but rather than eradicate St Nicholas altogether, the
tradition of gift giving associated with him was moved to Christmas Eve or Christmas Day
to better connect it with Christ. A Christ child was now the figure giving the gifts
too, rather than Nicholas and this figure became known in some German-speaking areas
as Christkindel, which is where the name Kris Kringle ultimately came from. In what is now
the UK, Father Christmas became a popular substitute name for St Nick and in fact my
own letters to Santa when I was little were addressed to Father Christmas (and thank you
to my Mum for keeping a couple of them so that I could fact check that for you!)
We now travel to the United States, where the final metamorphosis from Saint to Santa
was completed after the traditions surrounding Nicholas were imported there from European
immigrants. In 1809 the author Washington Irving published a book entitled The History
of New York. This included a dream sequence in which ‘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’. It was published, when else, on 6 December. The following year The New
York Historical Society began to hold a dinner in honour of St Nicholas Day.
Nicholas’s appearance and demeanour underwent a dramatic transformation in 1823 with the
publication and great success of the famous poem The Night Before Christmas. Debate still
rages as to whether it was authored by Clement Moore or Henry Livingstone, but for our purposes,
what matters is how Nicholas is described. The poem has him driving a flying sleigh full
of toys on Christmas Eve. This is pulled by eight reindeer whose names were, you guessed
it, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. Everything is in
miniature though; Nicholas, the sleigh and even the reindeer. In fact, Nicholas is actually
an elf and this is why he is able to fit down the chimneys of the children’s homes where
he deposits gifts in stockings. It also helps to explain the preponderance of elves in modern
depictions of Santa. There are no more bishop’s robes now though. Nicholas is dressed in furs,
though covered in soot and ashes and has a snowy white beard and a pipe. As for his physique,
the poem says:
He had a broad face and a little round belly That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full
of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old
elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of
myself
So by 1823, we have almost arrived at a modern depiction of Santa Claus within this poem
and if you stay til the end of the video, I’ll read out the whole thing for you. Incidentally,
if you’re wondering where Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is, he was actually a later invention,
first appearing in a 1939 book by Robert Lewis May.
What about the name Santa Claus? When did that come into common usage? There were already
some proto-versions of it floating around by the early 19th century, such as the aforementioned
Sinter Klaas, but what really helped to popularise the name was the republication of The Night
Before Christmas in 1830 under the revised title, ‘An account of the a visit from St.
Nicholas, or Santa Claus’. If you’re interested in the etymology of these words, Santa is
very close to Sancta, meaning Saint, while Claus is a truncated version of Nicholas.
There were still some tweaks to be made however, in order to finish the transformation from
Saint Nicholas into the Santa Claus we recognise today. These were helped along by the increasing
proliferation of print media in the 19th century, which allowed images of Santa to reach a larger
number of people than ever before and solidified his appearance in the public consciousness.
Historian Bruce David Forbes for instance (whose book all about Christmas is linked
below), has argued that the pictures drawn by cartoonist Thomas Nast for the Harper’s
Weekly magazine during the later 19th century were largely responsible for these final amendments
to Santa’s appearance. Nast made him a full sized man and added elements to his lore such
as his home at the North Pole where he made toys with the help of elves and received correspondence
from children all over the world. Even the food left out for him to eat while he visited
homes is traced to Nast.
To finish up, let’s look at Santa’s clothing and at one of the most enduring 20th and now
21st century legends about his appearance; the idea that he wears red and white because
of a coca-cola marketing campaign which started in the 1930s using illustrations by artist
Haddon Sundblom and which wanted to associate him with their brand colours. This is a story
you’ll hear trotted out quite often, but it isn’t true. Though some older images
of Santa do show him in colours besides red and white, such as this one in which he wears
a green cloak, or this illustration for The Night before Christmas in which he wears brown
(and is still shown as an elf) there are also plenty of images which predate the 1930s which
have him wearing his now stereotypical outfit. His colours are not a coca-cola invention,
nor does the company pretend otherwise. In an article on their website which I’ll leave
linked below for you, they state that ‘even though it’s often said that Santa wears
a red coat because red is the color of Coca-Cola, Santa appeared in a red coat before Sundblom
painted him.’
So there you have it history lovers, a breakdown of how the world got from St Nicholas in the
4th century AD all the way up to the modern-day Santa Claus, with his reindeer, sleigh, elven
helpers, red and white outfit, home/workshop at the North Pole and penchant for sneaking
down chimneys and scoffing milk and biscuits whilst leaving gifts for children. Let me
know in the comments below what your favourite Santa Claus memory is. Perhaps it’s a family
member dressing up as him, a really good Santa you saw in a shop once, or your preferred
depiction of him on the big screen. Wherever you are in the world, if you celebrate Christmas
than I hope you have a wonderful one. If you don’t, then I’ll just wish you a happy
and peaceful 25th December. And now as promised, let’s end with the poem The Night Before
Christmas:
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with
care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter's
nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below, When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer, With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the
wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to
the sky; So up to the housetop the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a
bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to
his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes
and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke, it encircled his head like
a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Til next time everyone, keep learning.