In 1821 an anonymous poet took his own peculiar version of the name Sinterklaas, and wrote the word “Santeclaus” on the fur hat of a revolutionary new character. This new gift-bringer was not the Dutch bishop, or frightening dark figure, or the Baby Jesus; he was an elderly man in a fur robe, arriving on roof tops in a sleigh pulled by a reindeer.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of this poem, The Children’s Friend: A New Year’s Present, to Little Ones from Five to Twelve published by William Gilley. It included eight illustrative plates (hand-coloured upon additional payment) and eight verses about the American gift-bringer’s activities. It gave the world a secular gift-bringer, someone who could be embrace by children of any denomination or ethnic background. It made him a creature of the North — clad in fur and reindeer-powered. It definitively moved gift-bringing to Christ Eve, casting St Nicholas’ Day and New Year’s Eve into disrepute. From this date forward the man we know as Santa Claus accelerates into our culture.
Over the next few days we will explore this too-little-known masterpiece.