Curious Facts About Santa Claus You Might Not Be Aware Of 3

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Santa becomes a pipe-smoking, flying bringer of presents

Source: National Geographic, Image: Wikipedia

The first recorded depiction of Santa Claus as the nighttime flying gift-giver dates to Washington Irving’s book “Knickerbocker’s History of New York” published in 1809. Irving tells of a pipe-smoking man flying over rooftops in his aerial wagon.

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Secularization turns St. Nicholas into Santa Claus

Source: National Geographic, Image: ladydragonflyherworld via Flickr

The anonymously published “The Children’s Friend” in 1821 was the penultimate formation of the Santa we’re more familiar with. The author removed St. Nicholas’ religious aspects, kept the gift-giving, and added a single wagon-pulling reindeer and the heavy coat and garb of northern and central European Clauses.

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Our favorite Christmas story which built the Santa story

Source: National Geographic, Image: kellypuffs via Flickr

“A Visit From St. Nicholas” (AKA “Twas the Night Before Christmas”) by Clement Clarke Moore was originally published anonymously in 1822. Americans loved the story so much (including, for the first time, eight reindeer pulling a sleigh) that it became our primary basis for conceptions of Santa.

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Santa Claus becomes who we recognize today

Source: National Geographic, Image: Wikipedia

The Santa Claus we’re familiar with today comes from a cartoonist. (That’s sticking it to teachers every time they said to stop drawing cartoons in class.) Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist in the late 1800’s, depicted Kris Kringle as the red-fur-coat-wearing, chubby, paternal man we know today.

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Santa goes back to Europe

Source: National Geographic, Image: infrogmation via Flickr

In the late 19th century, the continent which first housed and developed St. Nicholas was then reintroduced to the jolly gift-bringer, a departure from scarier Christmas-time characters. (Did you look up the Krampus yet? It’s absolutely terrifying.) Europeans adopted the American conception of Santa Claus, often naming him Father Christmas in their own languages.