How Santa Claus was born

Almost every child knows either Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, St. Nick, or Sinterklaas. A long list with different names for every country and they all look the same, or similar. Red coat, black boots, poodle cap, and a long, white beard.

Of course, this appearance has nothing to do with the historical figure of St. Nicholas, who worked as a bishop in Myra. The bishop wore a coat, but it was by no means necessarily red. Responsible for today’s prevailing color scheme is rather Santa Claus, with whom the figure of St. Nicholas is often mistaken, and who has always appeared in white and red for many decades.

The picture we have in our mind of Santa actually comes from the artist Thomas Nast. He was a Bavarian painter (South of Germany) who immigrated to American, where he made paintings for Christmas poems. It only took one request to paint a Santa Claus Picture for our contemporary image of Santa to be solidified. 

Thomas recalled that as a little boy each Christmas, an old fat man would give away cakes and toys to all the children. So, when he painted his version of  Santa Claus, He painted him to look like his childhood memory of the kind old man. Up until this very day, Thomas’ version of Santa has continued to be the most popular idea of what Santa looks like. 

Saint Nicholas lived in the 4th century in Myra, a city in present-day Turkey. He was known for his commitment to the poor as a bishop and was especially regarded as a friend of the children, many legends about his person circulated early on. For example, he is said to have freed three girls, who were to be forced into prostitution by their father due to lack of money. Already in the 6th century, Saint Nicholas was known in Europe due to his work in Myra and Byzantium. According to his model, the figure of St. Nicholas was depicted as a bishop with a staff, miter, and a wide coat. However, this was not necessarily red.

Until the Reformation, it was customary in Germany to give oneself gifts on St. Nicholas’ Day. Many Catholic families continued to worship St. Nicholas after the Reformation, and in the 17th century the idea of St. Nicholas visiting children at home first appeared. Interestingly enough, even then he had a rod with him. However, the prank with the rod was not intended as a punishment, but rather the contact with the living branch should give fertility. Later, Nikolaus Knecht Ruprecht joined him, who hereafter punished the naughty children with the rod.

While St. Nicholas has been preserved in the ecclesiastical area, a statue of St. Nicholas was created in the 19th century, which had less and less reference to religion. In 1804, the idea of the Dutch “Sinterklaas” was exported to America. Due to the lack of denominational background, “Santa Claus” lost all the attributes that distinguished him as a bishop. Mixed with the idea imported from Europe of “Mr. Winter”, an old man with a hooded coat who brings the Christmas tree and the gifts, the long coat, the bishop’s staff were exchanged for a fur-studded coat and a poodle cap.

Santa Claus quickly became a symbolic figure of the Christmas season and gradually got his typical appearance as well as his faithful companions, the reindeer. In an English poem published in 1821, the “Santa Claus”, dressed all in fur, traveled with a sleigh pulled by a single reindeer. A year later, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem “The Night before Christmas,” in which he gave Santa Claus eight reindeer and secretly let him climb into the houses through the fireplace.

Finally, in the 70s of the 19th century, the cartoonist Thomas Nast drew a series of pictures for the newspaper “Harper’s Weekly”, in which he gave Santa Claus a full beard and portrayed him as a toy manufacturer. He also let him live at the North Pole. This Santa Claus figure was widely used in the late 19th century. He was usually chubby and dressed in a predominantly red, but occasionally also blue, green or a purple coat.

When the custom of sending Christmas cards was imported from England, Louis Prang issued a card illustrating a chubby Santa Claus in a red suit. This image gradually prevailed and displaced the differently colored Santas. In 1927, the New York Times wrote: “The children of New York are shown a unified Santa Claus. Height, weight, and shape almost all match, including the red robe, the hood, and the white full beard. A sack filled with toys, red cheeks, a reddened nose, bushy eyebrows, and a cheerful and thick-bellied impression are also necessary components of the presentation.”

Contrary to popular belief, Coca-Cola did not invent Santa’s red and white suit. However, the company launched a campaign in 1931 in which it advertised its drink with Santa Claus. Of course, he was dressed in a red and white suit, after all, these are also the company colors of Coca-Cola. With the advertising campaigns for the soft drink, Sinterklaas, who had become Santa Claus, finally returned to Europe as Santa Claus dressed in red and white.

This Santa Claus now enjoys great popularity in Europe as well, especially due to his ubiquity in advertising in the ever-increasingly extended Christmas season. Not least because of this, the figure of Santa Claus and that of St. Nicholas have become more and more mixed in the imagination of many people. And so it happened that now St. Nicholas is usually depicted with a red suit, a red cap, and a white beard.

Many youngsters in Europe wait for St. Nikolaus on December 6th, the day of the Saint. He gives out chocolates, mandarines, oranges, nuts, Lebkuchen, or gingerbread cookies. The ‘other’ Santa comes and brings the presents on Christmas Evening or morning -depending on where you live.

I polished my boots really bright
And placed them on the sill last night.
Now I can’t wait to go and see
What St. Nick has left for me.
Nuts and treats and so much more
And all the sweet things I adore.

(A German poem I had to learn as a kid in my languages of course.)