Defending Santa

He came as many traditions come to America: as a nostalgic childhood memory recreated in a land free from religous controls.

Some historians argue whether celebrations of Saint Nicholas’ Feast Day actually took place as early as 1624 in North America. While a little evidence of such exists it has never been completely proven. Critics of the theory surmise that St. Nicholas’ Feast Day did not happen for the simple fact that the early Christians in the Americas were Protestants thoroughly schooled in the practice of avoiding saints.

Instead, historians agree that the evolution of Santa in America likely came at the end of the Revolutionary War, when all things British were out of fashion and most were celebrating their Dutch heritage. Such a man was John Pintard, founder of the New York Historical Society and a self-proclaimed lover of holidays. It was largely due to his efforts that the new country of the United States began celebrating George Washington’s birthday and Independence Day.

Pintard published a traditional Dutch hymn about a holy man named Sinter Claes, (Sint, meaning saint and Claes a shortened form of the name Nicholas). He had the hymn translated and printed with a small picture showing a man dressed as a bishop bearing both gifts and switches for those he visited on Christmas Eve.

A few years later, an author by the name of Washington Irving published a book called the History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. It was not considered history but it contained enough compelling information that it was wildly popular.

In the book, Irving frequently makes mention of Saint Nicholas as the patron of the little Dutch colony. He said that a figurehead of Saint Nicholas adorned the first ship to bring colonists to the New World from the Netherlands and that the good Bishop himself appeared in a dream and advised them to settle on the tip of Manhattan Island. He indicated that the early colonists of Dutch heritage always celebrated Saint Nicholas Day on December 5th.

True or not, the book sparked an interest in Saint Nicholas that has only grown over time in American society.

One who took interest early on was Clement C. Moore, a professor of Greek and Hebrew in New York City, who’s brother was one of Washington Irving’s best friends. A learned man, Moore was also father to six small children in the winter of 1822. He wrote for them a Christmas poem, known now as the The Night Before Christmas.

His intent was to keep it in the family. But a friend heard about it from the Moore children and had it published. It was republished under a variety of titles for a number of years during the holiday season, seemingly gaining in popularity with each passing season.

Moore’s poem, and increasing numbers of immigrants from mostly European countries, powered a revival of Christmas in America. This Land of the Free allowed religious diversity. And many coupled secular celebrations of the holiday season with religious observances tied to the birth of Christ. Santa was placed squarely in the middle — bringing together both worlds previously torn apart by religious conflict.

The poem inspired a German-bred illustrator named Thomas Nast to publish his interpretations of Saint Nicholas in the modern press that now featured colored printing. These early uses of mass media fueled the modern images of Santa Claus in America.

He was used on Christmas greeting cards, introduced in the 1840s, as a means of sending season’s greetings to friends who did not observe the religious aspects of the holiday. His image also proved useful to enterprising merchants, many of whom began to offer visits with Santa Claus right in their own shops.

As the shores of America continued to accept more people American culture continued to be introduced to traditions, symbols and rituals associated with Christmas around the world. Christmas trees gained in popularity during the period as did traditions involving candles, use of the evergreen for seasonal decor and music as a form of celebration and religious recognition of the season. These were all accepted as part of the season as time passed and each element found fuel in modern media to expand celebration of what was customarily a dreary season.

In 1870, Congress formally passed a law recognizing Christmas as a federal holiday, given to the popularity of a day that no longer had strictly religious ties.

By the 1880s, Mrs. Claus was introduced through a work of fiction by Katherin Lee Bates, in a book of poetry entitled “Sushine and Other Verses for Children”that enjoyed great popularity and completely shattered the celibate image enjoyed by Priests, Bishops and Saints.

The influence of the modern press cannot be dismissed when considering the ongoing transformation and increasing popularity of Santa Claus. Virgnia O’Hanlan’s letter to the editor of the New York Sun, asking for the truth concerning Santa Claus seemed to spell out society’s confusion over Santa’s origin. The editor, Francis P. Church, fueled a love for the season and for the figure of Santa Claus with his emotional response — re-published nearly every season since in countless publications around the world.

Later, in the early 20th Century, Santa’s image was “updated” by the Coca-Cola company through a series of advertisements showing Santa enjoying their product.

Where Santa once ruled in a debate of religious thought, he has since strayed into popular culture and he continues to be defined by it.

In the late 1930s, a department store chain known as Montgomery Wards published a new work of children’s fiction called Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as a holiday giveaway. The book gained international fame and the legend of Santa grew with a greater emphasis on the elements of reindeer and residency at the North Pole.

Occasionally, Santa takes a few backwards steps, too. Clement Moore’s poem describes a Santa smoking a pipe. Since the 1960s finding from the American Lung Association that smoking causes cancer, Santa has lost his pipe.

The “television specials” of the 1960s and 1970s, from Rankin and Bass’ Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town to A Charlie Brown Christmas, have shaped an entire generation’s view of Santa Claus. He maintains his gift-giving qualities but he’s grown to be more media savvy, more technical and grander in his abilities to see the past and the future of all children who claim belief in him.

As American popular culture has matured, so too has the image of Santa Claus.