How did the Christian saint []See St. Nicholas] and Bishop Nicholas, become a roly-poly red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity and commercial activity?

How does the bishop in Turkey is flying from his home in snow in the North Pole making toys and distributed it by his flying couch with reindeers?

Santa Claus encourages consumption while St. Nicholas encourages compassion.

Santa Claus, as we know him, developed to boost Christmas salesthe commercial Christmas message; but St. Nicholas told the story of Christ and peace, goodwill toward all—the hope-filled Christmas message.

It's been a long journey from the Fourth Century Bishop of Myra, St. Nicholas, who showed his devotion to God in extraordinary kindness and generosity, to America's jolly Santa Claus.

In US , Santa was evolved as follow:

- After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered with pride the colony's nearly-forgotten Dutch roots. John Pintard, influential patriot and antiquarian, who founded the New York Historical Society in 1804, promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both society and city.

- In January 1809, Washington Irving and on St. Nicholas Day that year he published the fiction, Knickerbocker's History of New York, which made numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character. Sinterklaas was Americanized into "Santa Claus" . This was not a saintly bishop, rather an elfin Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. These delightful flights of imagination was regarded as the "first notable work of imagination in the New World.

- In its first St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6, 1810 of the New York Historical Society, John Pintard commcommissionedxander Anderson to create the first American image of Nicholas for the occasion. Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children's treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace. The accompanying poem ends, "Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! To serve you ever was my end, If you will, now, me something give, I'll serve you ever while I live."

- On December 23, 1823 in the Troy, New York, Sentinel was published, the poem of "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (better known today as "The Night Before Christmas") In this poem Santa is established as a heavyset individual with eight reindeer (who are named for the first time).

- In 1885 Christmas card. was printed in which Father chriChristmasring in red costume

- In 1863 was cartoon by Thomas Nast who capture Santa Claus' image as we know him today .

- In 1902, was the book The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1902) by L. Frank Baum..

- From 1926: St. Nicholas Magazine was published. This enormously popular magazine named for children's patron, St. Nicholas, was published . It featured high quality children's authors and illustrators.

- From 1931 to 1964, Haddon Sundblom created poster each year for The Coca-Cola Company's "thirst knows no season" campaign. His life-size Santas in white fur-trimmed red suits are now the American Santa Claus. Some thought that Santa Claus was in fact invented by Coca-Cola. Nevertheless, Santa Claus and Coca-Cola have been closely associated for long time.

- Many charities orgaorganizationh as the Salvation Army are dressing as Santa as part of fundfund raising drives to aid needy families at Christmas time.

- Many Songs and orchestral works. inspired by Santa Claus.e.g "Here Comes Santa Claus", Santa Claus is Coming to Town"... [See more here]

- Appearing of "Santa Claus" at Christmas time in department stores or shopping malls as a costumed character who His function is either to promote the store's image by distributing small gifts to children, or to provide a seasonal experience to children by having them sit on his knee (a practice now under review)

- Many films about Santa legends: its origin, filling sockings from his pack of toys. , flying , doubts about his exisexistence and disappears up the chimney, attempting by children to trap Santa or capture him, children believing in him, as toys makers and distdistributortoys , Santa in his workshop, visiting his Eskimo neighbors, and tending his reindeer. Mrs. Clause" as as a super hero-type figure, Succession of Santas
[See films detail]

Reference:
Santa Claus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus , Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

 

 

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wow man where did u get that story ?? christmas in canada OwN BaBY

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Yes, indeed it is interesting and how Santa has a good memorable effect on each and every Christians who have had Santa's blessing as a kid.

BTW, by copying those stuffs from wikipedia.org you get some credits here. Not a bad idea... I always liked wikipedia. The amount of information there is massive... ask wikipedia for anything... he has something to tell us...

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Santa is cool. He puts everyone before himself. He wants to make sure everyone is happy.

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It is not right to say "by copying" and in fact must be "by sumerizing". Do u realise that summarizing 50 pages to one page is difficult matter and harder than speaking freely. You will not believe how much time it take from me. For me I added value to my knowledge and I have to give benfit to my audiance. Instead of thanking for the effort, you talk about credit points. That will not encourage others to pass the information they obtained.

 

 

 

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Kasm has made a great topic. And making 50 pages into 1 page would be hard. I wouldnt have been able to do it.

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