Santa Claus
Originally, it was Saint Niclaas, brought to America by Dutch settlers, who gave birth to the American Santa Claus. He first appeared under this name in 1823 in a poem attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, The Night Before Christmas.
- Christmas culture and tradition
As early as the 1880s, Santa Claus crossed the Atlantic once again and blended in Europe with local traditions surrounding Saint Nicholas, a strange Nordic “Winter Man,” and even traditional bogeymen, such as the Hàns Tràpp in Alsace. The result was a curious fusion.
In France, he took the name “Père Noël,” and in German-speaking countries, “Weihnachtsmann,” and in Alsace, “Wihnàchtsmànn.”
The imagery of the 1900s is full of these ever-changing versions of Father Christmas, sometimes carrying a bishop’s crook, a sack full of toys, or a whip, and dressed in green, red, purple, or even multicolored outfits.
In 1931, a Coca-Cola advertising campaign gave Santa Claus the form we know today, and the influence of American Christmas made him the primary distributor of gifts worldwide.
