albion
12-06-2004, 06:16 PM
The Father Christmas (Santa Claus) figure is based on Saint Nicholas (270 - 310AD), the patron saint of children.
The Dutch preserved the custom of Saint Nicholas Day, 6 December, http://www.norsknettskole.no/gs/0304/files/1048/Bilde/23889/sinterklaas200x200.gif
and Dutch children still await the visit of Sinter Klaas (Saint Nicholas).
Santa Claus in New York
The Dutch, under Peter Stuyvesant, founded New York - named New Amsterdam under the Dutch and renamed when the British took over the colony - and brought with them the celebrations of Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas. Santa Claus is the American pronunciation of Sinter Klaas.
As early as 1773 "St. A. Claus" was mentioned in the American press. In 1809, Washington Irving (the author of "Tales from Sleepy Hollow") wrote about Sinterklaas in his "A History of New York." Irving described Sinterklaas as a rotund little man in a typical Dutch costume, with knee breeches and a broad-brimmed hat, who travelled on horseback on the Eve of Saint Nicholas. In 1822, Clement Clark Moore, a poet and professor of theology, published the poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (also known as "The Night Before Christmas"). Moore's Santa is a jolly old elf who flies around in a miniature sleigh with eight tiny reindeer. Moore even named the reindeer by the names we know them today, and the method by which Santa returns up the chimney.
Thomas Nast, the illustrator and caricaturist who created the donkey and elephant images to depict the US Democratic and Republican parties, contributed his own vision of Santa for Harper's Weekly magazine from 1860 until the late 1880s. Nast depicted Santa in a red, fur-trimmed suit and a wide leather belt. Each year he added more details to his version of the Santa legend, including the home-workshop at the North Pole and the Naughty & Nice list.
Santa Claus in the North Pole
In 1885, Nast sketched two children looking at a map of the world and tracing Santa's journey from the North Pole to the United States. The following year, the American writer, George P. Webster, took up this idea, explaining that Santa's toy factory and "his house, during the long summer months, was hidden in the ice and snow of the North Pole."
In 1931 Haddon Sundblom presented Santa as a plump human rather than an elf, with a jovial face and big beard in a Coca-Cola advertisement. (Coca-Cola was a client of Sundblom's advertising agency from 1924 to until his death in 1976.) Today, it is Sundblom's Santa that slips down chimneys around the world.http://www.fortunecity.com/millennium/hibiscus/121/thirstasks.gif
http://www.fortunecity.com/millennium/hibiscus/121/cokesanta.html
The Dutch preserved the custom of Saint Nicholas Day, 6 December, http://www.norsknettskole.no/gs/0304/files/1048/Bilde/23889/sinterklaas200x200.gif
and Dutch children still await the visit of Sinter Klaas (Saint Nicholas).
Santa Claus in New York
The Dutch, under Peter Stuyvesant, founded New York - named New Amsterdam under the Dutch and renamed when the British took over the colony - and brought with them the celebrations of Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas. Santa Claus is the American pronunciation of Sinter Klaas.
As early as 1773 "St. A. Claus" was mentioned in the American press. In 1809, Washington Irving (the author of "Tales from Sleepy Hollow") wrote about Sinterklaas in his "A History of New York." Irving described Sinterklaas as a rotund little man in a typical Dutch costume, with knee breeches and a broad-brimmed hat, who travelled on horseback on the Eve of Saint Nicholas. In 1822, Clement Clark Moore, a poet and professor of theology, published the poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (also known as "The Night Before Christmas"). Moore's Santa is a jolly old elf who flies around in a miniature sleigh with eight tiny reindeer. Moore even named the reindeer by the names we know them today, and the method by which Santa returns up the chimney.
Thomas Nast, the illustrator and caricaturist who created the donkey and elephant images to depict the US Democratic and Republican parties, contributed his own vision of Santa for Harper's Weekly magazine from 1860 until the late 1880s. Nast depicted Santa in a red, fur-trimmed suit and a wide leather belt. Each year he added more details to his version of the Santa legend, including the home-workshop at the North Pole and the Naughty & Nice list.
Santa Claus in the North Pole
In 1885, Nast sketched two children looking at a map of the world and tracing Santa's journey from the North Pole to the United States. The following year, the American writer, George P. Webster, took up this idea, explaining that Santa's toy factory and "his house, during the long summer months, was hidden in the ice and snow of the North Pole."
In 1931 Haddon Sundblom presented Santa as a plump human rather than an elf, with a jovial face and big beard in a Coca-Cola advertisement. (Coca-Cola was a client of Sundblom's advertising agency from 1924 to until his death in 1976.) Today, it is Sundblom's Santa that slips down chimneys around the world.http://www.fortunecity.com/millennium/hibiscus/121/thirstasks.gif
http://www.fortunecity.com/millennium/hibiscus/121/cokesanta.html