2021 Is Bicentennial of Santa Claus

Celebrating Christmas Before Christ

During Middle Ages, the Catholic Church sought to replace the pagan gods with Christian figures as gift-giver.

The reasons for selection of St. Nicholas was likely a matter of convenience.

• To avoid use of a Catholic saint as holiday gift-giver, Protestants in Germany created secular gift-givers who looked like ragged, homeless versions of St. Nicholas.
• Protestant gift-givers celebrated Christmas, not the feast of Nicholas, a Catholic saint.
• These “terror men” were stern, scary-looking figures who typically traveled alone and carried bundles of switches for “bad” children.
• They had dozens of different names, including Knecht Ruprecht, many variations of Nicholas, several variations of Santa Claus.  
• Pelznickel traveled to Germany, changed name to Belsnickle.

• In theory, St. Nicholas was a Catholic bishop who lived in Myra, a city in what is now Turkey, and died in the early fourth century.
• There are no contemporaneous records about Nicholas; his name appears on some of the attendance records for the Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. but some scholars believe it was added over a thousand years later based on his fame. 
• The first biography of Nicholas was written three centuries after his death.
• His fame arose in twelfth century from a raid by the city of Bari, Italy, in 1087 to  obtain his relics (bones) after Myra came under Islamic control. 
• Santa Claus may have been a local name for one of the post-Reformation terror men in Germany; at a minimum, many close variations (e.g., Santi Klaus, Sente Klaus) existed and spellings could easily have changed from sixteenth century.  

• Educated Americans would have known of Nicholas as a Catholic saint, but many colonies prohibited celebration of Christmas or recognition of saints.
• In 1809, Washington Irving published an historical satire about New York that contained a few references to purported Dutch infatuation with St. Nicholas; the joke was dressing him in Dutch clothing.
• In December 1810, the New-York Historical Society held a dinner in which it distributed a broadside with St. Nicholas and a Dutch poem about him.
• In 1812, Washington Irving published a second edition of A History of New York that contained more references to St. Nicholas and new references to his role as gift-giver on December 6.
• Based on absence of historical references, it appears these publications did not generate much interest about St. Nicholas or Santa Claus before 1821.

• Santa Claus and St. Nicholas are essentially the same figure, and Santa Claus is merely an Americanization of St. Nicholas. 
• Santa Claus was created by Clement C. Moore in the 1822 poem that became known as “The Night Before Christmas.”
• Santa Claus was created by Gilley and Stansbury in 1821 in The Children’s Friend.  
• Descendants of Henry Livingston, Jr., a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., farmer, who died in 1828, say he wrote “The Night Before Christmas” in 1808 but never published it.
• U.C. Professor Charles W. Jones argued in a 1954 paper that author Washington Irving “made” Santa in his 1809 historical satire, A History of New York.

• In 1953, U.C. Professor Charles W. Jones gave a speech to the New-York Historical Society in which he opined that Washington Irving “made” Santa Claus in an 1809 satire about Dutch colonization of New York.
• Jones’ premise was that there was no evidence of St. Nicholas in the U.S. prior to Irving’s book and that Irving’s references popularized the saint.
• Jones’ sole evidence of this popularity was that in December 1810, a year after Irving’s book was released, a broadside and poem about St. Nicholas were released in New York City.
• The fatal flaw in Jones’ argument was that he was working with the 1812 edition of Irving’s book, and that the references to St. Nicholas upon which Jones relies did not appear in the 1809 edition.
• Minor references to St. Nicholas in Irving’s History could not be credited with creation of Santa Claus in any event.

• • A number of theories on when and how Santa arrived in U.S. are premised on assumption that Santa is merely an American version of St. Nicholas.
  • Santa Claus cannot be conflated with St. Nicholas any more than the world’s other midwinter gift-givers (i.e., Father Christmas, Ded Moroz, Knecht Ruprecht).
    • The two have common ancestors but St. Nicholas was neither the original midwinter gift-giver nor the immediate predecessor to Santa Claus.
    • St. Nicholas was a Catholic saint whereas Santa was purely secular. 
    • Protestants would not celebrate St. Nicholas’ Day, a Catholic holiday, so a secular or non-Christian gift-giver was needed.

• St. Nicholas was tall, solemn bishop; Santa was jolly, chubby old man covered in furs, soot who in The Children’s Friend carried a bundle of switches.  

• First illustrated version of Santa Claus in America ;
• First use of name Santeclaus, which had roots in German “terror men;”
• First time the midwinter gift-giver rode in sleigh pulled by flying reindeer;
• First time the midwinter gift-giver arrived on Christmas Eve instead of St. Nicholas’ Day;
• Unlike St. Nicholas, he landed on roof, entered through chimney; 
• Unlike St. Nicholas’ bishop garb, he wore heavy fur coat and hat;  
• Unlike St. Nicholas, Santeclaus was secular figure; and
• Unlike St. Nicholas, he carried handful of switches to punish children.

• Clement C. Moore, the wealthy and well-educated son of the Episcopal bishop of New York and president of Columbia College, was a professor of language and religion at General Theological Seminary and semi-professional poet.
• In 1822, Moore wrote and read to his family an untitled poem that became known as “The Night Before Christmas.”
• Moore worked across the street and conducted business with Gilley; these ties, and the inexplicable similarities between Moore’s poem and Gilley’s book, make it virtually certain that Moore lifted the story from The Children’s Friend.
• One of Moore’s house guests provided the poem to a newspaper editor in Troy, N.Y., which published it anonymously in 1823.
• Over next fifty years, the poem became world famous, establishing the look of Santa Claus and the pattern for celebration of the holiday on Christmas morning. 

• • In 1920, descendants of Poughkeepsie farmer Henry Livingston, Jr., promoted a claim Livingston read poem to his children in 1808, but never published it.
  • Somehow, the descendants claim, Moore obtained a copy of “Livingston’s poem” and read it to his family as his own work in 1822. 
  • Neither Livingston nor children who purportedly heard poem in 1808 ever publicly claimed authorship, and no copies have ever been discovered.
  • The only “evidence” of claim is hearsay from great-grandchildren or more distant relatives.
  • Despite characterization of Livingston as prolific poet, he wrote virtually nothing for last three decades of life.