Santa Claus, known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Christmas Eve to "nice" children, and either coal or nothing to "naughty" children.
39 Facts About Santa Claus
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Santa Claus is said to accomplish this with the aid of Christmas elves, who make the toys in his North Pole workshop, and with the aid of flying reindeer who pull his sleigh through the air.
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The modern figure of Santa is based on folklore traditions surrounding Saint Nicholas, the English figure of Father Christmas, and the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas.
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Santa Claus is generally depicted as a portly, jolly, white-bearded man, often with spectacles, wearing a red coat with white fur collar and cuffs, white-fur-cuffed red trousers, red hat with white fur, and black leather belt and boots, carrying a bag full of gifts for children.
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Santa Claus is commonly portrayed as laughing in a way that sounds like "ho ho ho".
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Santa Claus was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity.
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Santa Claus is the patron saint of both Amsterdam and Moscow.
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Santa Claus typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, bringing peace, joy, good food and wine and revelry.
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Santa Claus is known as de Kerstman in Dutch and Pere Noel in French.
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Odin, transformed into Father Christmas, then Santa Claus, prospered with St Nicholas and the Christchild, became a leading player on the Christmas stage.
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For example, in Washington Irving's History of New York, Sinterklaas was Anglicized into "Santa Claus" but lost his bishop's apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat.
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Some modern ideas of Santa Claus seemingly became canon after the anonymous publication of the poem A Visit From St Nicholas in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on 23 December 1823; Clement Clarke Moore later claimed authorship, though some scholars argue that Henry Livingston, Jr.
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Images of Santa Claus were conveyed through Haddon Sundblom's depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company's Christmas advertising in the 1930s.
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The image spawned urban legends that Santa Claus was invented by The Coca-Cola Company or that Santa wears red and white because they are the colors used to promote the Coca-Cola brand.
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Volunteers dressed as Santa Claus typically became part of fundraising drives to aid needy families at Christmas time.
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In some images from the early 20th century, Santa Claus was depicted as personally making his toys by hand in a small workshop like a craftsman.
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Santa Claus has been described as a positive male cultural icon:.
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Santa Claus is really the only cultural icon we have who's male, does not carry a gun, and is all about peace, joy, giving, and caring for other people.
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Santa Claus is much more organic, integral, connected to the past, and therefore connected to the future.
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Many television commercials, comic strips and other media depict this as a sort of humorous business, with Santa Claus's elves acting as a sometimes mischievously disgruntled workforce, cracking jokes and pulling pranks on their boss.
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The tradition of Santa Claus being said to enter dwellings through the chimney is shared by many European seasonal gift-givers.
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Santa Claus is generally depicted as a portly, jolly, white-bearded man, often with spectacles, wearing a red outfit consisting of jacket, trousers and hat all lined with white fur, accessorized with black leather belt and boots, and carrying a bag full of gifts for children.
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The laughter of Santa Claus has long been an important attribute by which the character is identified, but it does not appear in many non-English-speaking countries.
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In North American tradition, Santa Claus is said to live at the North Pole, which according to Canada Post lies within Canadian jurisdiction in postal code H0H 0H0.
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In France, Santa Claus is believed to reside in 1 Chemin des Nuages, Pole Nord.
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Actors portraying Santa Claus appear in the weeks before Christmas in department stores or shopping malls, or at parties.
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The actor dressed up as Santa Claus is usually helped by other actors dressed as elves or other creatures of folklore associated with Santa Claus.
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Santa Claus's function is either to promote the store's image by distributing small gifts to children, or to provide a seasonal experience to children by listening to their wishlist while having them sit on his knee.
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For example, children's television producer Jonathan Meath studied at the International School of Santa Claus and earned the degree Master of Santa Claus in 2006.
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Santa Claus's address is: Santa Claus, North Pole, Canada, H0H 0H0; no postage is required.
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In Mexico and other Latin American countries, besides using the mail, sometimes children wrap their letters to a small helium balloon, releasing them into the air so Santa Claus magically receives them.
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Santa Claus receives over 600,000 letters every year from over 198 countries with Togo being the most recent country added to the list.
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The origins of the NORAD Tracks Santa Claus programme began in the United States in 1955, when a Sears Roebuck store in Colorado Springs, Colorado, gave children a number to call a "Santa Claus hotline".
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The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first call for Santa Claus and responded by claiming to children that there were signs on the radar that Santa Claus was indeed heading south from the North Pole.
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Currently, most local television stations in the United States and Canada rely upon outside established "Santa Claus tracking" efforts, such as NORAD Tracks Santa Claus.
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Santa Claus has partial Christian roots in Saint Nicholas, particularly in the high church denominations that practice the veneration of him, in addition to other saints.
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Reverend Paul Nedergaard, a clergyman in Copenhagen, Denmark, attracted controversy in 1958 when he declared Santa Claus to be a "heathen goblin" after Santa Claus's image was used on the annual Christmas stamp for a Danish children's welfare organization.
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Santa Claus had been portrayed in a red suit in the 19th century by Thomas Nast among others.
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Imaginative play, in which children know that Santa Claus is only a character in a story, but pretend that he is real, just like they pretend that superheroes or other fictional characters are real, is valuable.