December
15, 2005:
Facts About Santa Claus
Interview
with Agatha E. Gilmore, author of the book, The
Santa Book |
Mike
Carruthers:
How did the story of Santa Claus begin?
Agatha Gilmore:
Santa really started with a legend of a real monk who was born
around 200 AD in Patara, which is a region in Turkey.
Agatha Gilmore,
author of, The
Santa Book…
And this original
St. Nicolas was known for his kindness and generosity and that's
his real origin.
But Agatha says
the Santa we know today with the sleigh, reindeer, red robes
and all really took shape in the 1800's.
When Clement
Clarke Moore who was a minister at the time, just wrote a poem
for his children, which we now know as Twas The Night Before
Christmas and really gave the Sinta Klaas Santa a real background.
It was in that
poem that Santa first got his eight reindeer to pull his sleigh.
Previously Santa
was pictured on everything from donkeys in Russia to polar bears
to snowshoes. Scandinavian immigrants who came to the US had
visions of Santa in a goat drawn sleigh.
So, probably
nothing has shaped our vision of Santa more than Clement Clarke
Moore's poem Twas The Night Before Christmas. But where did
Rudolph come from?
Rudolph, who's
our red nosed reindeer, was introduced by a Chicago department
store called Montgomery Ward in 1939 to help bring holiday traffic
into the store.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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