Santa Claus

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For other uses, see Santa Claus (disambiguation).

A common portrayal of Santa Claus.

Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Santy, or simply Santa is a giving figure in various cultures who distributes presents to children, traditionally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus.

Father Christmas is a well-loved figure in many countries and predates the "Santa Claus" character. Many little children are led to believe that Santa Claus is real. "Father Christmas" is similar in many ways, though the two have quite different origins. Using 'santa' in places that predominantly call him 'Father Christmas' is often viewed as an Americanism and is quite rare, although they are generally regarded as the same character. Father Christmas is also present instead of "Santa" in Armenia ("Gaghant Baba"), Denmark ("Julemanden"), Italy ("Babbo Natale"), Brazil ("Papai Noel"), Czech Republic ("Ježíšek"), Poland ("Święty Mikołaj"), Portugal ("Pai Natal"), Romania ("Moş Crăciun"), Germany ("Weihnachtsmann" or "Nikolaus"), Ireland & Scottish Highlands ("Daidí na Nollag"), France and French Canada ("Le Père Noël"), Norway ("Julenissen"), Turkey ("Noel Baba"), Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Deda Mraz"), Spain and Mexico ("Papá Noel"), Afghanistan ("Baba Chaghaloo"), Iraq and South Africa ("Goosaleh") Chile (Viejito Pascuero).

Overview

Depictions of Santa Claus also have a close relationship with the Russian character of Ded Moroz ("Grandfather Frost"). He delivers presents to children and has a red coat, fur boots and long white beard. Much of the iconography of Santa Claus could be seen to derive from Russian traditions of Ded Moroz, particularly transmitted into western European culture through his German folklore equivalent, Väterchen Frost.

Conventionally, Santa Claus is portrayed as a kindly, round-bellied, merry, bespectacled white man in a red coat trimmed with white fur (perhaps remotely derived from the episcopal vestments of the original Bishop Nicholas), with a long white beard and green or white gloves. On Christmas Eve, he rides in his sleigh pulled by flying reindeer from house to house to give presents to children. To enter the house, Santa Claus comes down the chimney and exits through the fireplace. During the rest of the year he lives together with his wife Mrs. Claus and his elves manufacturing toys. Some modern depictions of Santa (often in advertising and popular entertainment) will show the elves and Santa's workshop as more of a processing and distribution facility, ordering and receiving the toys from various toy manufacturers from across the world. His home is usually given as either the North Pole, in northern Canada, Korvatunturi in Finnish Lapland, Dalecarlia in Sweden, or Greenland, depending on the tradition and country. Sometimes Santa's home is in Caesarea when he is identified as Saint Basil. L. Frank Baum placed his home in The Laughing Valley of Hohaho.

Since most activities associated with Santa Claus are extraordinary, such as delivering presents to all of the believing children in one night, keeping track of where every believing child lives, how he squeezes down chimneys, how he enters homes without chimneys, how he delivers presents without tripping motion detectors if the Christmas tree is not in the same room as the fireplace, why he never dies, how he makes reindeer fly, and how he survives in the cold at the North Pole, "magic" is usually used to explain his actions.

Origins

Santa Claus rituals

Ho, ho, ho

The laughter of Santa Claus has long been an important attribute by which the character is identified, but it does not appear in many non-anglo saxon countries. The traditional Christmas poem A Visit from St. Nicholas relates that Santa has:

Jacob Grimm asserts that "Ho ho ho" was the hunting cry of Odin during The Furious Host. Odin being attributal to Santa Claus.

"H0H 0H0" is a postal code used by Canada Post for routing letters sent in Canada to Santa Claus at the North Pole. The alphanumeric sequence falls within a grouping associated with the Montreal, Quebec area.

Christian opposition to Santa Claus

Excerpt from Josiah King's The Examination and Tryal of Father Christmas (1686), published shortly after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.

Despite Santa Claus's mixed Christian roots, he has become a secular representation of Christmas. As such, a small number of primarily fundamentalist Christian churches dislike the secular focus on Santa Claus and the materialist focus that present-giving gives to the holiday. Such a condemnation of Santa Claus is not a twentieth century phenomenon, but originated among some Protestant groups of the 16th century and was prevalent among the Puritans of 17th century England and America who banned the holiday as either pagan or Roman Catholic. Following the English Civil War, under Oliver Cromwell's government Christmas was banned. Following the Restoration of the monarchy and Puritans were out of power in England, the ban on Christmas was satirized in works such as Josiah King's The Examination and Tryal of Old Father Christmas; Together with his Clearing by the Jury (1686) [Nissenbaum, chap. 1]. [link] Rev. Paul Nedergaard, a clergyman in Copenhagen, Denmark, drew the ire of Danish citizens in 1958 when he declared Santa to be a "pagan goblin" after Santa's image was used on fundraising materials for a Danish welfare organization [Clar, 337]. One prominent religious group that refuses to celebrate Santa Claus or Christmas for similar reasons are the Jehovah's Witnesses, but several denominations of Christians have varying concerns about Santa Claus.

[link] Some Christians would prefer that the focus of the Christmas season be placed on the actual birth of Jesus. Some parents are uncomfortable about lying to their children about the existence of Santa. Some parents worry that their children might think that if they were deceived by their parents about Santa Claus, parents might also be deceiving them about the existence of God.

While these viewpoints do not represent the majority of Christians, their comments have drawn the attention of critics such as the fictional Landover Baptist Church, whose website satirizes and parodies this viewpoint. The website specifies that Satan is disguising himself as Santa (notice the same letters used in an anagram) to deceive people into a materialistic celebration.[link]

Christmas gift-bringers around the world

See: Christmas gift-bringers around the world See also: Christmas worldwide

References

["Bad Disney"]. Washington Times. November 21, 2003.
Barnard, Eunice Fuller. "Santa Claus Claimed as a Real New Yorker." New York Times. December, 19, 1926.
Baum, L. Frank. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. 1902; reprint, New York: Penguin, 1986. ISBN 0451520645
Belk, Russel W. "A Child's Christmas in America: Santa Claus as Deity, Consumption as Religion." Journal of American Culture, 10, no. 1 (Spring 1987), pp. 87-100.
["Christmas Customs; Are They Christian?"]. The Watchtower (New York). December 15, 2000.
Clar, Mimi. "Attack on Santa Claus." Western Folklore, 18, no. 4 (October 1959), p. 337.
Clark, Cindy Dell. Flights of Fancy, Leaps of Faith: Children's Myths in Contemporary America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. ISBN 0226107787
["The Claus That Refreshes"] at Snopes.com.
["The Devil Is In Your Chimney!"] at Landoverbaptist.org.
Dini, Paul. "Jingle Belle" various issues [link]
Flynn, Tom. The Trouble with Christmas. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1993. ISBN 0879758481
Horowitz, Joseph. Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005. ISBN 0393057178
["Is There a Santa Claus?"] New York Sun. September 21, 1897.
King, Josiah. The Examination and Tryal of Old Father Christmas; Together with his Clearing by the Jury . . . London: Charles Brome, 1686. Full text available [here]
Lalumia, Christine. ["The restrained restoration of Christmas"]. In the Ten Ages of Christmas at BBC.co.uk.
[Moore, Clement Clarke]. "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel. December 23, 1823.
Nissenbaum, Stephen. The Battle for Christmas. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. ISBN 0649412239
Otnes, Cele, Kyungseung Kim, and Young Chan Kim. "Yes, Virginia, There is a Gender Difference: Analyzing Children's Requests to Santa Claus." Journal of Popular Culture, 28, no. 1 (Summer 1994), pp. 17-29.
Ott, Jonathan. Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History. Kennewick, Wash.: Natural Products Company, 1993. ISBN 0961423498
Plath, David W. "The Japanese Popular Christmas: Coping with Modernity." American Journal of Folklore, 76, no. 302 (October-December 1963), pp. 309-317.
Potter, Alicia. ["Celluloid Santas"] at Factmonster.com.
Quinn, Seabury. Roads. 1948; facsimile reprint, Mohegan Lake, N.Y.: Red Jacket Press, 2005. ISBN 097488958X
["St. Nicholas of Myra"] in the Catholic Encyclopedia at NewAdvent.org.
Sedaris, David. The Santaland Diaries and Seasons Greetings: Two Plays. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1998. ISBN 0822216310
Shenkman, Richard. Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History. New York: HarperCollins, 1988. ISBN 0060972610
Siefker, Phyllis. Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas, Spanning 50,000 Years. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1996. ISBN 0786402466
Twitchell, James B. Twenty Ads that Shook the World. New York: Crown Publishers, 2000. ISBN 0609605631
["Why Track Him?"] at NORADsanta.org.

External links

"Official" Santa Claus site: [Santa Claus]
[Christmas and Santa Claus] by Santa Club
Article:[My Favorite Santas]
The Original 1860s [Thomas Nast Santa Claus] Illustrations
CLAIM: [The modern image of Santa Claus was created by Coca-Cola. what do you think?]
[Jenny Nyström], the artist whose Christmas cards inspired Haddon Sundblom when he designed Coca-Cola's Santa.
[Norman Rockwell's Santa and Expense Book]
[SantaLand.com], one of the Internet's oldest Santa-related website, founded in 1991 by former Library of Congress archivist Jeff Guide
[Fortean Times magazine pieces together the Santa myth in Lappland]
[NORAD Tracks Santa]
[Santa Claus Plaza]
[Santa Television,] originating out of Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland
[KringleQuest.com:] The Unofficial Website
[Santa Claus Pictures]
[Santa Claus Vintage Postcards]
This American Life [story about the history and stories of Santa Claus]

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