What on earth possessed the unknown author to portray Santeclaus in a reindeer sleigh? St Nicholas had always come on a flying horse or wagon, the Christ Child and assorted European gift-bringers always walked, sometimes with a scary helper, sometimes with a donkey.
The reindeer, sleigh, and fur clothes indicate someone from a northerly clime — no one had ever thought that was a necessary attribute before — but it leads straight to a sleigh pulled by 8 reindeer, a setting in the North Pole, and an army of industrious elves
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.
Before 1821 there were a number of Christmas gift-bringers in the USA. Dutch families, chiefly in New York, honoured Sinterklaas, their name for St Nicholas. Since no American had written about Sinterklaas, his legend spread orally and a variety of spellings referred to Santa-claw, St a. Klaus, Sandy Claw, Sancte Claus, etc. In Pennsylvania and Maryland, German immigrants had brought Belsnickle (or Pelznichol), a rough fur-clad fellow, or Kriss Kringle (or Kriss Krinkle or Krishkinkle, etc.), their version of das Christkindl or Christ Child. Some English immigrants referred to Queen Mab or other fairies but as yet, there was no Santa Claus.
This poem entitled will show how ethnically particular the St Nicholas figure was by 1810. He comes on his saint’s day (December 6), not on Christmas Eve, and his presents are clearly Dutch, especially the giant cookies in the shape of the bishop.
Oh good holy man! whom we Sancte Claus name, The Nursery forever your praise shall proclaim; The day of your joyful revisit returns, When each little bosom with gratitude burns, For the gifts which at night you so kindly impart To the girls of your love, and the boys of your heart.
O! Come with your panniers and pockets well stow’d, Our stockings shall help you to lighten your load, As close by the fireside gaily they swing While delighted we dream of the presents you bring.
Oh! Bring the bright Orange so juicy and sweet, Bring almonds and raisins to heighten the treat; Rich waffles and dough-nuts must not be forgot, Nor Crullers and Oley-Cooks [cookies] fresh from the pot.
But of all these fine presents your Saintship can find, O! Leave not the famous big Cookies behind; Or, if in your hurry, one thing you mislay, Let it be the Rod – and ah! keep it away.
Then holy St. Nicholas! all the long year, Our books we will love, and our parents revere; From naughty behavior we’ll always refrain, In hopes that you’ll come and reward us again.
“Good News” is a nineteenth-century African American Christmas song in which the birth of Jesus is the good news which produces salvation regardless of race. Here are the lyrics as printed in Honey in the Rock: The Ruby Pickens Tartt Collection of Religious Folk Songs.
God knows I am a Christian Knows I ain’t ashame De Holy Ghost is my witness An’ de angel done sign my name.
Chorus : Wa’n’t that good news, good news Angel brought tidin’s down Good news, good news I’m huntin’ fer de Lord.
Oh, one dark night in December Christ our Savior was born. De bright light shine from heaven Down by Bethlehem’s stable door.
Oh, you may be a white man White as de dribberlin’ snow Ef yo’ soul ain’t ankeld in Jesus To hell you showly go.
Oh. “H” stands fer old hell You may go dere ef you please Search old hell wid a fine-tooth comb You won’ find na’y Christian dere.
In the 20th century it was common for armies to use Christmas as a propaganda tool against their enemies. In January we posted a Russian leaflet using the holiday to lure German soldiers into surrendering. Germans used similar appeals to weaken the morale of American troops.
During the Korean War, the “volunteer” army of Communist Chinese troops sent Christmas greetings to Allied forces (mostly American) opposing them. The text reads:
We are wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We also have something to talk to you about.
Christmas is a day of peace and happiness. And a day for family reunions.
But this Christmas, for you, there is no peace. You are far away from those you love, in Korea, a country you never heard of three years ago–hundreds of thousands of casualties ago. Your family longs for you across the wide pacific. Will they ever see you again? Will you ever see them again?
You’ve been told you came here to stop “Communist Aggression.” But what do your own eyes and head tell you? The Koreans are fighting in their own country. The Chinese are defending their own nearby borders. Neither of these people ever dreamed of invading the United States. It is U. S. Troops who have come here with bombs, napalm, +++ and other weapon of mass murder.
Bombs and guns can’t break the spirit of the Koreans and Chinese because they are guarding their homes. What about you? Is there any reason why you should be here instead of home with your folks? You are risking death or crippling wounds to hold on to one or two bare Korean mountains. What for?
The heartless men who sent you here have sent American soldiers to Europe. These soldiers too are told that they must protect different countries from “Red Aggression.” But everywhere they go they hear the people yelling, “Yanks, go home.” This wasn’t the way GI’s were greeted everywhere in world War II when they were really fighting agains aggressors–the Nazis and Japanese warlords. Then they got flowers. So something is wrong. What is it?
The truth is that American soldiers today are helping oppressors, not fighting them. You know how the Koreans “love” Syngman Rhee! You know how the Chinese “loved” Chaing Kai-shek whom they kicked out in spite of $6 billion worth of U. S. aid. In Japan the U. S. is letting convicted war criminals out of jail and giving them a new army to play with. In Germany, it’s the same. In France, in Italy, they back governments which have sold out their own peoples for dollars, governments which order the police out every time working people strike for a living wage. Isn’t this true? You know it is.
Why are Americans sent abroad to do this kind of dirty work, the exact opposite of every fine thing America ever stood for, in a way that would make Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln turn over in their graves if they knew it? Because the American government has been stolen from the American people by greedy Big Business which cares nothing about your life or anyone else’s but only for its lousy profits. The corporations have made more money since the Korean war than they ever did before, out of arms orders for which the American people are paying through higher taxes, higher prices in every grocery store and the lives of their sons–YOUR lives. That’s why the Brass Hats are throwing monkey wrenches into the talks at Panmunjom which could have succeeded a year ago. That’s why they want more war everywhere, not peace.
Every people on earth is getting wise to this new kind of business–Murder for Profit. Americans at home are getting wise to it too. Millions are asking for peace and getting fed up iwht the lies. American fathers and mothers have refused medals sent to them after their boys died in Korea. Hundreds of American pilots with decorations for courage in World War II have refused to fly in Korea. Tens of thousands of young men are dodging the draft. This is not because they are cowards. It is not because they aretn’t ptriotic. It’s because they are beginning to understand that they’ve been fooled.
The patriotic thing is to fight for peace! The patriotic thing is to fight for friendship, not war, between peoples! What harm can peace do to any country, to America? What good does war bring to any nation, Americans included? The real traitors, the real criminals, are the few who send troops, thousands of miles away so they can rake in dollars. They think they own America, and for that matter the world. They think they own you. Who gave them the right? What kind of free American citizen are you when they can shove you into uniform, pack you in a boat, and send yo to all end of the earth for no reason than this?
We the Chinese People’s Volunteers, are writing you this letter, We came here because, after we cleaned out the dirty grafter Chaing Kai-shek, you stormed into the land of our neighbor and threatened the first chance we ever had to build up our country. We don’t want to fight anyone. We want to build in peace. We are in favor of peaceful coexistence and trade for every people in the world.
Don’t believe the Big Money boys and politicians at home. They are no different from Chaing Kai-shek whom we ran out of China. Don’t do what they want. Do what the people want.
We offer you peace and friendship. America for Americans. Korea for the Koreans. China for the Chinese. Why should not we all, Korean soldiers, Chinese soldiers, American soldiers join our efforts for peace? Then we don’t need to be soldiers any more. Then next Christmas, if not this one, can really be merry. Then we can have a really Happy New Year in 1953! Let’s make it so!
One does not expect the word “bum” to be associated with Christmas, but here we are. First a lexicographic discussion of the term. In Britain and the Commonwealth bum refers to one’s bottom; one sits on one’s bum. Thus in Australia a “Christmas bummer” is underwear decorated with pictures of Santa or reindeer or candy canes.
In the United States, however, bum refers to a hobo or mendicant. To bum around is to wander as a vagrant; to bum is to beg. Throughout the nineteenth-century, American churches differed as to celebrating Christmas. The feast was fully supported by Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and northern Methodists; it was opposed by Baptists, Quakers, southern Methodists, and a host of independent sects. As the years went by, more and more denominations succumbed to the lure of Christmas. Many churches began to eye Santa Claus as a figure of tremendous appeal who could attract children (and thus their parents) to Christian worship. Churches, particularly those involved in missions to the urban poor, began to compete with each other in the mounting of December pageants and ceremonies of gift-giving. The Pilgrim Unitarian Church in San Francisco hired a public hall and featured songs, recitations and tableaux, a giant Christmas tree hung with lights and presents, artificial snow falling from the ceiling, and a Santa driven into the room in a sleigh drawn by two real deer. Even on the sparsely settled prairie, Christmas productions were deemed indispensable. In December 1886 churchgoers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, could choose from the Congregationalists’ “Santa Clausville,” the Baptists’ literary musical entertainment and supper, the Presbyterians’ “Gathering of the Nations to Meet Santa Claus,” or the Methodist-Episcopal “Christmas House” with Santa. The latter, a playlet by Edward Eggleton, was a popular one in churches and is noteworthy for the character of Santa Claus condemning “Christmas bummers”—children who only made an appearance in Sunday School at Christmas and who often went from one church to another to gather yet more loot in the spirit of Halloween.
In the twenty-first century “Christmas bummer” has come to refer to an aspect of the holiday that makes one depressed. Sad Christmas songs such as “Christmas Eve Can Kill You” by the Everley Brothers, “Santa Can’t Stay” by Dwight Yoakam, or Joni Mitchell’s “River” are guaranteed to provoke tears.
If you read Michael P. Foely’s Why We Kiss Under the Mistletoe: Christmas Traditions Explained, you will come across this passage:
Another remarkable transformation took place in Louisiana’s Cajun country, when the Kristkindl brought by Swiss immigrants became “La Christine,” a woman who brings homemade treats and small gifts on New Year’s Eve.
That description almost fits in with the remarks of Paul Chiquet, a Lousiana librarian, who told the blog EvangelineToday.com that La Christiane [not La Christine] was associated with the New Year, not Christmas, which jibes with accounts that in times gone by Christmas was the day for a religious celebration and the New Year was the time of gift giving.
“To Cajuns Pere Noel is for Christmas and La Christiane is for New Year’s. This Cajun tradition is still followed today in many place like St. James Parish, where I am from. This was an Acadian tradition that came with them to Louisiana.
“La Christiane was a woman who always came to the Cajuns on New Year’s Eve and gave out fruits, homemade candies and small gifts. My family still follows this tradition. We put out a pillow case on the fireplace with my grandchildren’s name on them and one for my grown children also for any family member who will stay overnight for New Year’s.”
Note that Foley attributes La Christine’s origin to Swiss settlers bringing with them the Christ Child (Christkindl or Kristkindl) as the Christmas gift-bringer while Chiquet attributes it to the Acadians (refugees from French Canada who arrived after 1745). If Chiquet were correct we must expect to find remnants of the La Christine tradition carried on in New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island. No custom by that name persists in eastern Canada but inhabitants there revere Mother Goody (also known as Aunt Nancy or Mother New Year), a lady who brings little gifts to children on New Year’s. Is that the connection?
It must also be said that in some ports of Louisiana “La Christiane” is simply a synonym for Papa Noël or Santa Claus while others refer to the figure as “Santa Claus’s wife”.
Several months ago we featured “Death May Be Your Santa Claus”, a sermon recorded on a 78 rpm disk by the Reverend J.M. Gates. Such recordings sold well in African American communities in the 1920s. Today we feature a similar, perhaps even more sombre, exploration of that theme by the Reverend A.W. Dix, “Death May Be Your Christmas Present.”
Saint Lucia was a virgin martyr who was blinded before her execution in 304 — thus she is sometimes represented in art holding a plate containing her eyeballs. She was venerated first in Syracuse, Sicily where she died but her cult spread throughout Europe, reaching even Sweden where she is celebrated on her feast day, December 13.
She is usually portrayed as a young woman, sometimes wearing a crown of candles, but in areas of Northern Italy, Santa Lucia appears as a veiled blind old woman. On December 13, riding a cart and donkey, accompanied by her helper Castaldo, she brings gifts to children.
A pre-Christmas tradition for children in Bergamo is to visit the church of the Madonna dello Spasimo with letters telling Lucia what they would like to receive for Christmas. There they lay letters containing their Christmas wish lists next to the altar containing the statue of the Blessed Virgin of Spasimo, also known as Santa Lucia. In other northern Italian cities there are other designated areas for the collection of such requests.
On the eve of her feast day children leave coffee, tea, or biscuits for Santa Lucia, a carrot or hay for the donkey and a glass of wine for Castaldo. Should they be so bold as to stay up to try and catch the saint delivering the presents, they risk being blinded by Lucia with ashes.
This song is a carol celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas by using the numbers to set forth Christian doctrine — a dial here means a compass, or guide. It first appeared in an almanac of 1625 but may be much older. The song “Green Grow the Rushes” may have been based on “A New Dial”.
What are they that are but one? What are they that are but one? We have one God alone In heaven above sits on His throne:
Chorus: In those twelve days let us be glad : / For God of His power hath all things made.
What are they which are by two? Two testaments, the old and new, We do acknowledge to be true:
What are they which are but three? Three persons in the Trinity Which make one God in unity:
What are they which are but four? Four sweet Evangelists there are, Christ’s birth, life, death which do declare:
What are they which are but five? Five senses, like five kings, maintain In every man several reign:
What are they which are but six? Six days to labor is not wrong, For God himself did work so long:
What are they which are but seven? Seven liberal arts hath God sent down With divine skill man’s soul to crown:
What are they which are but eight? Eight Beatitudes are there given Use them right and go to heaven:
What are they which are but nine? Nine Muses, like the heaven’s nine spheres, With sacred tunes entice our ears:
What are they which are but ten? Ten statutes God to Moses gave Which, kept or broke, do spill or save:
What are they which are but eleven? Eleven thousand virgins did partake And suffered death for Jesus’ sake:
What are they which are but twelve? Twelve are attending on God’s son; Twelve make our creed. The Dial’s done:
