by Annalyn Andriyenko

Created on: November 19, 2009   Last Updated: November 20, 2009

Although Santa Claus has been commercialized for many years now as a figure who gives gifts to children on Christmas, it is hard to remember that Santa Claus was in fact, a real individual. Santa Claus, the plump old man dressed in red with the long white beard used to be Saint Nicholas, a bishop of Myra, adorned in long robes. He was a miracle worker of the time, even given the name Nicholas the Miracle Worker. His tradition of being a secret gift giver is what formed and shaped the idea of what Santa is today.

Saint Nicholas gave his secret gifts to people who worked under him and even gave them out to the poor, especially children. He hid the secret gifts in the shoes of people who knew him, and they all could figure out it was Nicholas who gave them a little something. People soon started to suspect that he was the true gift giver to the poor after noticing how he had great wealth passed down to him from his parents, with that money he could increase his ways of giving presents to the poor and keeping a steady balance of it.

After Saint Nicholas had passed away people mourned in sadness, and even started to carry on his tradition of giving out gifts, thus the tradition has been held even nowadays in the form of old kris kringle. In the 19th century the image of the now modern Santa had been formed by, believe or not, a political cartoonist named Thomas Nast. This image had developed more and more over the years through the media such as television, images, descriptions and even olden time radios.

Santa is not only a Canadian and American tradition, but worldwide he is seen in different depictions of culture. For example, in the Germanic era where Norse gods where believed to walk, Santa Claus was a thin line between the mythical god, Odin. The idea of the name Santa Claus itself came from the spelling of Sinterklass, which became Americanized in the early 1800's as the name it is now. His clothing came from the idea of a cartoon in the newspaper around the era, of a sailor in a thick coat and beard holding a cigar in his mouth.

Many children do grow fond of the idea of Santa being from the North Pole, in fact this is actually a Thomas Nast creation as well! He stated that Santa's home is near a cold area, in the north pole of ice and snow. Santa Claus's origins are rich and reading up on all of it can be quite intriguing, this short history just shows the basics of how he was created.

Learn more about this author, Annalyn Andriyenko.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.