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Here Comes Santa: How the Rotund, Jolly Gift-Giver Came to Be |
| Section: LIFE / CHILDREN |
| Author: Rosemary G. Rennicke |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 12/1/1987 |
| Size: 1,587 Words, 9,423 Characters |
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Say "Santa", and the image of a white-bearded, red-suited, jolly old elf is evoked. From department stores to street parades and greeting cards to tree ornaments, the rotund gift-giver is an unmistakable Christmas presence. Yet, it has taken him seventeen centuries and three continents to arrive.
Our modern Santa Claus is a composite character: evolved from Teutonic gods, minor Roman deities, pagan feast figures, cartoon and literary inventions, and a Near Eastern saint. The latter - a Greek Christian named Nicholas - is the person who set the myth in motion. Born around A.D. 270 in the area that is now Turkey, Nicholas was a deeply religious child who joined the priesthood at the age nineteen.
Among the many good works and miracles that earned him sainthood was his genero...
. . .
...te, toy-toting, grandfatherly personage of today. He was even exported to those Old World countries that had given birth to Santa, as well as to lands that had no existing Christmas tradition.
Why does he endure? Whatever his form - stern-faced saint or jelly-bellied old elf - Santa enchants with his willingness to give and readiness to care, hopefully eliciting these noble traits in us all.
(812 of 9,423 characters)
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