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A Civil War cartoonist created the modern image of Santa Claus (2018)
- teruakohatu 5y agoIt was an evolution, the myth and the sleigh was already there, the beard goes back hundreds of years. This page has a good overview of the image of Santa over the centuries: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-pictorial-history-of-santa-claus https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-pictorial-histor...
- lanevorockz 5y agoAbsolutely, I find this claim of "created santa" is so silly that it sounds like revisionist history. Kazakhstan, Lithuania and other regions have "Santa" traditions that go back over a hundred years and it is mostly indistinguishable than the "propaganda" version.
- kgran 5y agoAlmost all Kazakhs are Sunni Muslims. If you've meant Christian populations like Russians, then I would be interested to see what's special about Russian Kazakhstani's Santa traditions. I'd also like to see a hundred or more years old Lithuanian Santa version similar to the Unionist one. This is not to dismiss your claim that this might be revisionist (I'm not sure), but your examples on Kazakhstan and Lithuania lack evidence.
- mpol 5y agoNot an answer, mostly a hint :) But could it be that the folklore of Odin / Wodan came there through the Vikings? The Dutch Sinterklaas is partly based on the Wild Hunt of Odin. Odin might have inspired more civilisations with the same concept.
- snemvalts 5y agoDidn't you know? All culture of the world revolves around the US /s
- MomoXenosaga 5y agoThe Netherlands has something called "Sinterklaas". But I think celebrating children and giving presents to them is something that goes back to the very origin of mankind and can be found all over the world.
- genewitch 5y agoSinterklass is just how the Dutch pronounce Saint Nicolas. Americans bastardized it to Santa Claus. As we do.
- treeman79 5y agoLet’s not forget the fine German tradition of the Christmas pickle. That no one in Germany knows about… https://youtu.be/Sb0qu_RjQ6I https://youtu.be/Sb0qu_RjQ6I
- vmception 5y agoThere are some people that are susceptible to the idea of new information being more canonical than the prior information they were initially exposed to, as opposed to merely an alternate amongst many alternates.
- ksherlock 5y agoThey seem to agree with the premise (``[Nast] created the modern image of Santa Claus''): ``The cartoonist Thomas Nast established the bounds for Santa Claus' current look with an initial illustration in an 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly, as part of a large illustration titled "A Christmas Furlough".''
- anshumankmr 5y agoFascinating, as I always thought it was based on a person called St Nicholas(and it sort of is) but never really knew it's roots in modern times. Here is an album made by the same artist on Santa Claus. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Santa_Claus_by_Thomas_Nast https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Santa_Claus_by_T...
- trasz 5y ago“St Nicholas” is just a Catholic fairy tale; an attempt to fabricate history to connect Santa Claus to religion.
- schleck8 5y agoYou are wrong > The Dutch are credited with transporting the legend of St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas) to New Amsterdam (now New York City), along with the custom of giving gifts and sweets to children on his feast day, December 6. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Santa-Claus https://www.britannica.com/topic/Santa-Claus It's a fact that St. Nicholas existed, and that he was portrait with a white beard and red clothing a millenia ago. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikola_from_1294.jpg#mw-jump-to-license https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikola_from_1294.j... Maybe have some more respect for other peoples' culture, especially when linked to spirituality.
- galgalesh 5y agoAs someone from the Flemish (dutch-speaking) part of Belgium, I can honestly say that is a very US-centric view you have. In the Netherlands, the custom of "Sinterklaas", which was brought to the US and became Santa Klaus, predates Christianity coming to the Netherlands and Saint Nicholas was indeed created in order to be able to continue this "heathen" feast. It's origins are in the Celtic/Germanic midwinter fest of "Yule". During this fest, the god Wodan, rode on a horse, carried a staff, brought gifts to nice children and had devilish helpers who kidnapped the naughty children. This tradition is still strong in northern Europe, which was much less influenced by Christianity. Santa Klaus lore still has a lot of hints to the pagan origins. For example, the reindeer which pull Santa’s sleigh are called Donner and Blitzen-‘thunder and lightning’ from the Old Dutch ‘Dunder and Blixem’. (Wodan is the Germanic/celtic version of Odin.)
- b112 5y agoAnd, to add to this, he wears red, because Coca-Cola co-opted him for advertising purposes.
- basisword 5y agoThis isn’t true. Coca cola makes heavy use of him because he coincidentally wore red.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Findecanor 5y agoI'd say that the red and white colours scheme is much older than Coca Cola. The American Santa Claus is believed to be mostly based on the Dutch "Sinterklaas" (Saint Nicholas) tradition, in which he is depicted as wearing a red cape and bishop's mitre over a white robe.
- _-david-_ 5y agoHe was depicted in red prior to the creation of Coca-Cola.
- max002 5y agoBefore him there was "grandfather freeze" in Russia, in Poland st. Claus from bishop. How he looks? My nephew and niece really dont care :D as long as he brings presents :))))))
- lttlrck 5y agoIt seems he's been around for a very long time... https://beautifulrus.com/ded-moroz-vs-santa-claus/ https://beautifulrus.com/ded-moroz-vs-santa-claus/ myths spread far and wide. Father Frost is a tradition in Mongolia.
- nashashmi 5y agoThe author writes articles on obscure facts in history but I also a strange insertion of opinions bordering on journalistic heresy. Take this article with a big grain of salt. The cartoonist didn't create a modern image of Santa but swung Santa imagery only in the US.
- notahacker 5y agoAnd even in American culture, there's a certain famous poem from a few decades before the Civil War involving a jolly white bearded St Nicholas with a sack of presents on his back and a sleigh with reindeer, ironically acknowledged by the article itself.
- DFHippie 5y agoI think this and many other comments on this article are taking the article the wrong way. The article isn't asserting that Nast created the image of Santa Claus for everyone on Earth but only in the US. This might be wrong as well -- Nast perhaps took an image, or elements of various images, that were present in many locations in the US and popularized them -- but people are presenting evidence of the depiction of Santa Claus/Father Christmas/Saint Nick/Sion Corn/Sinterclas/etc. in other countries as contradicting the thesis of the article. It is an article in an American magazine for an American audience and it discusses the depiction of this entity in the US before and after Nast's influence. Evidently the author should have been more explicit on this point, but I expect she didn't think people would take it as they have. The "we" should refers to her assumed audience, is other people in the US, the sort of people who subscribe to Smithsonian. When she says the "the image we have today" she doesn't mean any disrespect to other cultures; she is just assuming her audience is Americans, that they will know she has this assumption, and that therefore she is talking about American culture, not global culture.
- WoahNoun 5y agoThe article even explicitly says "modern image" in the title. Those paintings posted below are certainly not the "modern image" of Santa in the US.
- PostThisTooFast 5y agoRudolph was created as a Christmas mascot for Montgomery Ward (Chicago) department stores: https://www.npr.org/2015/12/25/461005670/the-history-of-rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer https://www.npr.org/2015/12/25/461005670/the-history-of-rudo...
- jaclaz 5y agoCoincidentally, also on HN currently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29528179 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29528179 https://france-amerique.com/en/the-invention-of-santa-claus-from-thomas-nast-to-coca-cola/ https://france-amerique.com/en/the-invention-of-santa-claus-...
- oceanghost 5y agoSo there's some thought that the Santa Claus myth is highly involved with the mushroom Amanita Muscaria. https://www.npr.org/2010/12/24/132260025/did-shrooms-send-santa-and-his-reindeer-flying https://www.npr.org/2010/12/24/132260025/did-shrooms-send-sa...
- ramphastidae 5y agoPortrait of Saint Nicholas with a long grey beard and red and white robes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas#/media/File%3AJaroslav_%C4%8Cerm%C3%A1k_(1831_-_1878)_-_Sv._Mikul%C3%A1%C5%A1.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas#/media/File%3...
- amelius 5y agoHow did he pick the name "Santa Claus"? Was Claus a common name in that period? And why did he use "Santa" instead of "Saint"?