Sint Nikolaas

The garments on this illustration of “Sint Nikolaas” by Dutch artist R. Koene in 1760

Perfection

Santa Claus Worldwide distills the cheerful essence of Christmas from many sources and studies, old and new. In addition to his wide reading, author Tom A. Jerman has brought a wealth of personal experience

Great Read!

Santa Claus Worldwide describes gift givers throughout the world in history from the pagan god Odin to the present day Father Christmas, Weihnachten, Père Noël, Ded Moroz, and Santa Claus. Mr. Jerman’s thorough research of this subject, takes the reader on a journey...

Amazing!

Until now I’ve been especially interested in Clement C. Moore and his transcendent poem The Night Before Christmas. Tom Jerman puts Moore’s classic in perspective with a broad and highly informative look at the international history of Santa Claus. For my own...

This book is REALLY impressive

I’m not a historian (I work with a lot of historians, but I’m not one!) but this book REALLY impressive piece of work! Extensively referenced and Tom Jerman does a great, scholarly job of telling the “stories” that should be told with the support of a lot of...

Sint Nikolaas (R. Koene, 1760). The garments on this illustration of “Sint Nikolaas” by Dutch artist R. Koene in 1760 look much more like a monarch’s finery than the bishop’s vestments worn by St. Nicholas in the vast majority of illustrations, and is not repeated in other depictions.

Sint Nikolaas 1760

Sinter Klaas 1750

Niklaus und Klaubauf (Johann Michael Mettenleiter, 1790). This 1790 painting of St. Nicholas and Klaubauf, in which the evil helper Klaubauf attempts to put a child into a bag while St. Nicholas stands silently behind, is one of the earliest depictions of Nicholas’ evil helpers.