Well, there was a real person that Santa Claus is supposed to be based on – St Nicholas, a 4th century bishop – but it was really in the US, many hundreds of years later, that the name Santa Claus became popular, probably from the Dutch legend of a jolly old man called Sinter Klaas.
I was really interested to find out, a little while ago, that there are some very old Scandinavian legends about a red-coated figure who would give presents to people, especially children – he seems to have a lot of names including Tomten. That probably explains why we always imagine Santa living in the far north. Also a lot of those old myths suggested that the ‘gift-giving’ figure would punish bad behaviour as well as rewarding the good – anyone else remember being threatened with a stocking full of coal and wood if they were naughty? I certainly was, and that’s a side of the Santa/Father Christmas idea that crops up a lot.
What’s really nice is the way people all over the world have created their own idea of the ‘Christmas man’, whatever their culture or beliefs – there are some fascinating examples here www.lone-star.net.
It seems as if we all just love the idea of giving presents and having a warm, friendly figure around in the darkest part of the year…
I was really interested to find out, a little while ago, that there are some very old Scandinavian legends about a red-coated figure who would give presents to people, especially children – he seems to have a lot of names including Tomten. That probably explains why we always imagine Santa living in the far north. Also a lot of those old myths suggested that the ‘gift-giving’ figure would punish bad behaviour as well as rewarding the good – anyone else remember being threatened with a stocking full of coal and wood if they were naughty? I certainly was, and that’s a side of the Santa/Father Christmas idea that crops up a lot.
What’s really nice is the way people all over the world have created their own idea of the ‘Christmas man’, whatever their culture or beliefs – there are some fascinating examples here www.lone-star.net.
It seems as if we all just love the idea of giving presents and having a warm, friendly figure around in the darkest part of the year…