The legend of Santa
The Christmas spirit is all in the air. The mood of festivity rings loud. And for most of us, Christmas brings to mind the rolly-polly, white hair and bearded, old man, saying, “Ho Ho Ho”. Yes, Santa Claus. We all know that he is the creation of fiction, just like Sherlock Holmes but did you know that it was Coca Cola which created this character?
Before Coca Cola, a few hundred years ago, somewhere around the 3rd century, there was a monk – Saint Nicholas and he was born in Turkey. He was well known for his kindness and generosity. Often he gave joy to poor children by throwing gifts in through their windows. And then the legend of the Saint came to America around 18th century through Dutch settlers in New York, who were influential in what was then called New Amsterdam. The Dutch gave St. Nicholas the nickname “Sinter Klaas,” the Dutch way of saying, “St.Nicholas”.
Some 100 years later, Clement Clark Moore wrote a poem, “An account of a visit from St.Nicholas” and he described the saint of being jolly and sporting a paunch. Moore included such details as the names of the reindeer; Santa Claus's laughs, winks, and nods; and the method by which Saint Nicholas, referred to as an elf, returns up the chimney. Cartoonist Thomas Nast was inspired by this and he drew the first sketch ever of Santa Claus – a rotund old man, with spectacles, white beard and holding toys for children. He was also the first to ever show that Santa worked with the elves in the North Pole. This illustration of Santa came in the Christmas issues of Harper's magazine from the 1860s to the 1880s.
And then the first human-sized version of Santa Claus, rather than the elf of Moore's poem, was depicted in a series of illustrations created by Haddom Sundblom for Coca-Cola advertisements introduced in 1931. And look how this fictional character has come to symbolize the goodness of this festival!