The modern Santa Claus has evolved from an assortment of sources. Some sources predating Christianity. There are also the stories of St. Nicholas, Washington Irving, Clement Moore, Thomas Nast, and the Coca-Cola Company all contributing to the entity we in the 21ST Century lovingly refer to Santa Claus.

 

The name "Santa Claus" is derived by a bastardized English term mimicking the Dutch "Sinter Klaas," their term for Saint Nicholas. Contrary to popular opinion Santa Claus took his name from the Catholic Saint Nicholas and not Satan or the devilish  designation.

Saint Nicholas is patron of mariners, merchants, bakers, travelers, children, etc. His representations in art are as various as his alleged miracles. In Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, they have the custom of making him the secret purveyor of gifts to children on 6 December, the day on which the Church celebrates his feast; in the United States and some other countries St. Nicholas has become identified with Santa Claus who distributes gifts to children on Christmas eve.

 

Because of the gift-giving legends associated with Nicholas, it was held (especially in Belgium and Holland) that on the Eve the Feast of Nicholas, the bishop himself would come from heaven and visit children in their homes, giving gifts to those who had been good. Nicholas, decked out in full ecclesiastical garb (bishop's vestments, with miter and crozier), would arrive on a flying gray horse (or white donkey, depending on the custom). In some variations of the legend, he was accompanied by Black Peter, an elf whose job was to punish children who had been bad.

 

It is held by some scholars that the legends of Nicholas as gift-giver drew in part from pagan, preChristian sources. For example, the Teutonic god of the air, Odin, would ride through the air on a gray horse (named Sleipnir) each Autumn - so did Nicholas; Odin had a long white beard - so did Nicholas; a sheaf of grain was left in the field for Odin's horse - children left a wisp of straw in their shoes for Nicholas. Some claim that attributes of the Germanic god Thor, the god of thunder, were transferred to Nicholas. Thor was supposedly elderly and heavy with a long white beard; he road through the air in a chariot drawn by two white goats (called Cracker and Gnasher); he dressed in red; his palace was in the "northland;" he was friendly and cheerful; he would come down the chimney into his element, the fire.

 

After the Reformations of the sixteenth century the Feast of St. Nicholas was abolished in many countries. Throughout northern Germany, for example, the Protestants encouraged veneration of the Christkindl (Christ-child) instead, who, it was said, brought gifts to children on Christmas Eve. As an example of this, a Protestant Pastor of the seventeenth century complains about parents who put presents in their children's beds, telling them that St. Nicholas has brought them. This is a bad custom, he says, "because it points children to the saint, while yet we know that not St. Nicholas but the holy Christ Child gives us all good things for body and soul, and He alone it is whom we ought to call upon." Despite this new emphasis, the Nicholas legends prevailed in many places, especially among the Dutch.

 

Author Washington Irving (1789-1853), most famous for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle," is important for the information he gives us on the Dutch version of Sinter Klaas in the early nineteenth century. Washington's 1809 work "The History of New York (also called the "Knickerbocker History") was a satire on the transplanted customs of the Dutch of New York city. The "History" contained several references to the legend of St. Nicholas as observed by the Dutch. The St. Nicholas described by Irving was an old man in dark robes that arrived on a flying horse on the Eve of St. Nicholas to give gifts to children.

 

In his Folklore on the American Land, Duncan Emrich gives us  the next  American evolution of Santa Claus. It is a little know poem, "The Children's Friend," first published in 1821. The poem went beyond what Irving had written, mentioning for the first time a flying sleigh and a reindeer.

 

The person most responsible for shaping  of Santa Claus is Dr. Clement Clark Moore. He wrote a simple poem for his children in 1822 entitled, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," that begins with the now famous words,

 

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In the hope that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

 

Illustrator Thomas Nast, that gave us the image of Santa Claus.

Finally commercialism at it's best delved it's hands into " jolly old Saint Nic". Coca-Cola also contributed to the modern Santa Claus. Beginning in 1931 and for 35 years, Coke ran advertisements drawn by Haddon Sundblom that featured a people-size Santa drinking Coke. These ads contributed much to the modern image of Santa Claus.