Week 6 : From Saint to Santa

From Saint to Santa 

 

Most people in the world know him. He used to be associated with the Bishop of Myra, who according to a legend inherited a fortune, which he gladly shared with others. Traditionally, he is presented as an old man with an impressive beard, often in the miter and with the crosier. On 6^th of December (the anniversary of the saint's death) he brings children gifts. They get sweets in a bag if they behaved well, and a golden colored birch switch if not

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nikola_from_1294.jpg

http://www.parafialipiany.ubf.pl/news.php?rowstart=55

Nowadays most often he is a likeable old man with a white beard dressed in red and white. 

 

Who are we talking about? 

I think no one has any doubts – the Santa Claus!

Although in Europe the feast of St. Nicholas, typically celebrated on the 6^th of December, was very popular throughout the middle ages, after the reformation in the 16th century the celebration died out in most Protestant countries, apart from Holland where the celebration of Sinterklaas lived on.

In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas was the patron of Amsterdam, and his cult was extremely strong. Traditionally they depicted him as an old man in the robes of a bishop, who rides on a donkey. He was mentioned for the first time in the 14th century. Since the 16th century he has arrived by boat and rode a white horse.

http://www.visitaruba.com/things-to-do/events/sinterklaas-celebrations/

Later a colony of New Amsterdam was taken over by  Britain and they renamed it New York. When the Dutch settled in the U.S., every year on December 6th they celebrated St. Nicholas  Day. New Yorkers couldn’t pronounce it properly, so they twisted the name of the saint, pronouncing it Santa Claus.

In 1809, a writer and lover of folklore Washington Irving wrote the book "History of New York" in which he presented the events of the conquest of America by the Dutch conquerors and their custom of giving presents on the day of Santa Claus. In the illustrations by James Paulding, Santa didn’t have bishops robes, and instead of a white horse, he traveled on the Pegasus - steed with wings.

 The year 1821 was important for the development of the image of Santa Claus, when the first lithographic book was published in the United States. It was a brochure dedicated to Christmas entitled "The Children's Friend: A New Year's Present," which has been preserved only in two copies until today. Santa Claus was shown there differently than before. For the first time he appeared in a sleigh on skids and with gifts, though his attire was closer to the contemporary military garments than modern red-white outfit.

Santa Claus, The Children's Friend, 1821
William B. Gilley, publisher http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/origin-of-santa/

On 23rd Dec. 1823 a poem appeared in New York newspapers, entitled ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas' by Clement Clark Moore, a professor of Bible studies. Moor presented Santa Claus as a jolly old man with a large belly and of short stature, traveling sleigh pulled by reindeers and entering through the chimneys on Christmas Eve to give out presents to children under the Christmas tree. At the same time he placed the arrival of Santa Claus not on December 6th, as it was in Europe, but on Christmas Eve.

 

An illustration by Thomas Nast comprising the first image of Santa Claus dressed in patriotic clothes with stripes and stars was published in 1863. 

Detail from Thomas Nast’s illustration 

“A Christmas Furlough” for the front page of a 1863 

issue of Harper’s Weekly. http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/12/1

3/a-pictorial-history-of-santa-claus/#sthash.5MQmziuj.dpuf

In the years 1860-1880 the magazine ‘Harper's’ published many drawings of his authorship. Santa Claus performed by Nast’s was a short fat man from Moore's poem. Nast also established Santa Claus placed at the North Pole.

Thomas Nast
Harper's Weekly January 1, 1881
Val Berryman Collection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus

Illustration from the 1864 edition of Clement Moore’s

 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas 

http://archive.org/stream/visitfromstnicho00

inmoor#page/n9/mode/2up

http://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:1913-12-Boys-Life-Norman-
Rockwell-cover-Santa-and-Scouts-
in-Snow-400.jpg

“The illustrator Norman Rockwell, with his many depictions throughout the 1920s, was a key player in cementing Santa’s modern look. Here is an early illustration of his from before the First World War.  

Pictured here are just two of Norman Rockwell’s many Santa themed covers for the Saturday Evening Post. Like Sundblom’s depictions for Coca Cola more than a decade later, these pictures of Rockwell’s give a very physiologically human and naturalistic aspect to the character as opposed to the more cartoonish features which had gone before.”

A Pictorial History of Santa Claus, Public Domain Review, 13th December 2012

 

Two covers for the Saturday Evening Post 

by Norman Rockwell, the left one from 1920,

 the right from 1922 http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/

index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&profile=

default&search=Norman+Rockwell+santa+

Saturday+Evening+Post&fulltext=Search&uselang=en

In the twenties of the 20^th  century Cola drink was considered suitable only on hot summer days. When winter was coming,  the company experienced huge declines in sales, so it decided to start an advertising campaign that would encourage  consumers to buy the famous brown drink in the winter months.

http://www.wokv.com/photo/events/other/santa-through-years/pMM8k/

The final image  of the American  Santa Claus was created by Coca-Cola in its advertising campaign in 1930. The Red coat and the cap was designed by the American artist Fred Mizen, and was used in the advertising of beverage.

A year later, a new image of Santa Claus prepared, also at the request of Coca Cola, Sundblom Huddon. He depicted a Santa Claus high and mighty, with white hair, mustache and long white beard. The costume was red and white.

 

With time Saint Nicholas has changed not only his name but also his appearance.

1. Which of the images is the closest to you? Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas?
2. Do you think that the modern image of Santa Claus is too different from the original?
3. Do you deserve a gift or a birch switch this year?