Storytime 21: Who is Santa Claus?

St. Nicholas inspired the character of Santa Claus. The tradition of St. Nicholas was imported to the United States by German and Dutch emigrants, there the man who brought gifts to children on Christmas Eve took the name of Santa Claus. We find in the figure of Santa Claus what symbolically represented St. Nicholas: the long white beard, the fur hair, the great red cloak. St. Nicholas traveled on a donkey, Santa Claus on a sleigh pulled by eight reindeers: Comet, Dancer, Dasher, Prancer, Vixen, Donder, Blitzen, Cupid, translated into Italian Cometa, Ballerina, Fulmine, Weasel, Freccia, Saltarello, Donato, Cupido .. Then later came Rodolfo, the famous reindeer with the red nose. Over the years its appearance changed In 1809, writer Washington Irvin first spoke of Santa's moving around the sky for the distribution of gifts. In 1821: The American shepherd, Clément Clarke Moore wrote a fairy tale about Christmas for children in which the character of Santa Claus appeared with a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. In 1860, Thomas Nast, illustrator and caricaturist for the New Yorkais Illustrateur Weekly, dressed Santa Claus in a long red cape trimmed with fur and a large black leather belt. For nearly 30 years, Nast illustrated all aspects of the Santa Claus legend with hundreds of drawings. In 1885, Nast officially established Santa's residence in the North Pole and illustrated with a drawing two children tracing the route from the North Pole to the United States on a map of the world. The following year, American writer George P. Webster took up this idea and pointed out that the toy factory and Santa's home during the long summer months were hidden in the ice and snow of the North Pole. In 1931, Santa Claus got his new look for a Coca Cola advertising campaign. They changed the red cape for a red suit, put some weight on him and gave him a nicer air. Thus Coca Cola spread and still spreads the image of the nice old man all over the world. How to track down Santa Claus? The traditional home of Santa Claus changes according to traditions: in the United States it is said that he lives in the North Pole (located for the occasion in Alaska) while in Canada his laboratory is indicated in the north of the country; in Europe the Finnish version is more widespread, which makes him live in the village of Rovaniemi, in Lapland. Other traditions speak of Dalecarlia, in Sweden, and of Greenland. In countries where he is identified with San Basilio, he is sometimes made to live in Caesarea. With the advent of the Internet, some websites were published so that interested children and adults could symbolically follow Santa's path via radar. In reality it is a US Air Force jet that leaves from a Canadian base to arrive in Mexico City. But the intentions of following the deeds of Santa Claus are much earlier. For example, in 1955 Sears Roebuck, a department store in Colorado Springs, in the United States, distributed Santa Claus's elusive phone number to children to call on Christmas Eve. Due to a printing error, however, the number corresponded to the air defense command, which was then called CONAD (Continental Air Defense Command), a precursor of the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). Harry Shoup, the commander on duty that evening, when he began to get the first phone calls from the children realized the mistake and told them that there were indeed signs on the radars showing Santa coming from the North Pole. Since NORAD was created in 1958, the Americans and Canadians have developed a joint Santa monitoring program, which is now available to all children on the website of the new air defense command. Likewise, many local television stations across Canada and the United States report Santa's location to their viewers and have their meteorologists follow him. - Source: Thanks For Visiting