COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – It's easy to wonder where Santa Claus comes from, and NBC4 has the answers. Although magic is often the simplest explanation for St. Nick's Christmas Eve adventures, many of Santa's traditions can also be traced to European folklore and the colonialization of the U.S.
Santa Claus began with Nicholas, who was born to wealthy parents in the third century in modern-day Turkey. When his parents died of an epidemic while he was still young, Nicholas inherited their fortune and used it all to help the needy, sick and suffering, according to the St. Nicholas Center. Later serving as a bishop, Nicholas was known for his generosity before he was exiled and imprisoned for his Christian faith. Upon his death in 343, he became Saint Nicholas, patron saint and protector of children.
The day of his death, Dec. 6, became Saint Nicholas Day, which was celebrated in northwestern Europe’s Low Countries and throughout Germanic lands. According to the Vatican, his winter feast and patronage of the young led to the tradition of giving gifts on his holiday, and children would leave out shoes the night before, which would be full of gifts when they woke up. In Dutch, the Vatican said, his name was “Sint Nikolaas,” which became “Sinteklaas,” and eventually the Anglicized Santa Claus. In German, “Christkindl” gave gifts, which became Kris Kringle.
Although some assume Santa Claus wears red because of his involvement in Coca-Cola commercials, his red uniform far predates the soda. According to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, legends of St. Nicholas wearing red and white are centuries old, and artwork from the Middle Ages and Renaissance portray him in red and white robes.
However, Santa’s popular persona is a more modern creation. In 1822, professor Clement Moore was hosting a holiday gathering at his home in New York. At one point in the night, he read his now-famous poem, titled “A Visit from St. Nicholas” but known for its opening line: “‘Twas the night before Christmas.”
The poem describes Santa Claus as cherry-cheeked, dimpled and jolly, and with a joyful laugh and stomach like “a bowl full of jelly.” This contributed to German immigrant and Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast’s portrayal, who drew Santa Claus in an 1862 Christmas edition of Harper’s Weekly.
Nast also drew from his own traditions of St. Nicholas with folklore images of elves. In the image, credited as the first modern image of Santa Claus, St. Nick arrives at a Union army camp on a sleigh to deliver gifts and necessities to Union soldiers. Before Nast and Moore, Santa Claus was often depicted as a tall, thin man, but people grew attached to Nast’s depiction, according to the Ohio State University library.
Washington Irving is often credited with first slipping Santa down the chimney in an 1812 novel poking fun at the elite in New York. Irving’s depiction of Sinterklaas incorporated several takes on the Dutch figure of St. Nicholas, including his slipping down the chimney. Moore also had a role to play, with his formative poem securing the image of St. Nick on the roof, coming down the chimney.
Magical beings coming down the chimney is a centuries-old concept. Many older houses have a slight bend or lean to their chimneys, known as a witches crook. According to Northeastern Masonry and Chimney services, folklore said witches could fly on their brooms into homes through the chimney.
In Italian folklore, a kindly witch named Befana brought presents to good children on Epiphany Eve, a Catholic celebration in early January. She came down the chimney to fill kids’ stockings with candy. In the Netherlands, children left shoes by the fireplace so a chimney was easy access. The Netherlands’ Sinterklaas also had servants, who were typically covered in soot from helping deliver presents, so although Sinterklaas arrived by boat, he still has ties to chimney legends.
This part of Santa’s history is less clear, although many historians believe it came from a combination of folklore tales.
According to UC Berkeley professor of Dutch studies Jeroen Dewulf, Sinterklaas carried a book of children who were good and bad each year, contributing to Santa’s nice and naughty lists. However, bad children didn’t get anything from Sinterklaas, and especially bad children were put in a bag and taken away, Dewulf said.
Befana did give bad children coal, garlic or onions, however. So did Krampus, a central European folklore character who punished misbehaving children at Christmas time, although Krampus would also beat or kidnap bad children, according to Britannica.
Historically, many homes were heated by coal, especially when modern versions of Santa Claus were being cemented. According to Yale, heating homes by coal was a global phenomenon that began in the mid-1700s and took root in the U.S. in the 19th century. With this context, coal was a better alternative to gifts than it would be today, as it would still help heat homes.
Still others theorize coal was simply convenient. If a magical figure is headed down chimneys and in need of something for bad kids, coal is probably the easiest material to find.
An anonymous author took inspiration from Irving’s satirical, frosty depiction of Sinterklaas and wrote a little poem about Santa – “Santeclaus” in the text – flying with reindeer. According to History Today, some of the coldest winters on record fell in the decade before the poem’s 1821 publication, leading to increased associations with Christmas and snowy weather.
Moore took it further and named the reindeer in his poem, listing eight reindeer names that are still widely accepted, although Donner and Blitzen were originally written as “Dunder” and “Blixem,” similar to the German words for thunder and lightning. In Nast’s famed artwork, Santa’s sleigh was pulled by reindeer once again.
Some of Santa's partnership with reindeer comes from the Sami people, the Indigenous people of upper Scandinavia. According to the University of Austin, the Sami practiced traditional reindeer herding for centuries, and some still do today. Reindeer are sacred in Sami culture.
According to journalist Laura Galloway who is studying Sami culture, Sami reindeer and Santa’s reindeer collided after an Alaskan missionary named Sheldon Jackson attempted to find an alternative food source for Inuit people suffering from colonial overfishing of whales. His solution was to bring more than 100 Sami reindeer herding families and nearly 600 reindeer to Alaska to introduce the Inuit to reindeer herding.
Galloway said American business man Carl Lomen worked in Alaska and decided the influx of reindeer could be commercialized. In 1926, he partnered with Macy’s to create a promotional Christmas parade led by Santa, reindeer and several Sami herders in traditional clothing to promote Macy’s and a monopoly he attempted to begin on reindeer meat that never took off.
According to the Smithsonian, Nast was also responsible for Santa's chilly home, as his famous depiction located St. Nick in the North Pole. However, depictions of Santa and reindeer predated Nast, and tied Santa to the cold climates reindeer are found in. At the time, the North Pole was also a place for legends, as the first explorers didn't reach it until 1926, according to the National Archives.
According to the Smithsonian, a New York businessman tried to keep his daughter busy during a road trip in 1949, telling her a story about a baby bear who got lost and found Santa's workshop at the North Pole. Deciding it could be a good opportunity, he teamed up with the artist who went on to help design Disneyland to create a physical version of Santa's workshop in "North Pole, New York," which became one of America's first theme parks. Visitors flocked to the park, near Lake Placid, excited that refrigerator technology kept parts of the park cold year-round.
Although the first confirmed expedition to reach the North Pole took place in 1926, people were fascinated by the Arctic decades earlier. According to National Geographic, non-Indigenous exploration into the Arctic first began in the 1800s and stirred lots of popular excitement about the prospect.
