2 minute read
Barks
Doris Montag
The History of Ordinary Things the Americanization of Santa Claus
Centuries ago, European Christmas customs centered on St. Nicholas, a charitable Turkish Catholic bishop born in the fourth century. St. Nicholas was associated with gift giving to children, which occurred on Dec. 6, St. Nicholas Day.
In America, circa the 1800s, the Puritans and other Calvinists had eliminated Christmas as a holy season under the premise that a Christmas observance was inconsistent with gospel worship. Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, and other Protestants regarded Dec. 25 as a day without religious significance; in fact, it was a day for normal business.
The holiday season, coming after harvest, was a time when workers and servants took the upper hand, demanding gifts for their labors. The season was characterized by raucous, drunken mobs roaming the streets, damaging property, and threatening and frightening the upper classes.
During this period, a new understanding of family life and the place of children was emerging. Childhood began to be seen as a time in which greater protection, sheltering, training, and education were needed. In this light, the holiday season began to be tamed,
From 1881-1886, political cartoonist thomas Nast drew a series of annual Santa Claus images for Harper’s Weekly, a newspaper. these drawings portrayed an overweight Santa with flowing beard, fur garments, black boots, and a clay pipe. (the pipe disappeared in images after 1960.) Illustration to verse three of the children’s poem “Old Santeclaus with Much Delight,” 1821.
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