Carols, bells and lights -hotels, restaurants and gift shops are getting ready to welcome Christmas as 24 million people expect a visit by a short, fat guy in a red suit. Where did he come from, why does he do it, and how does he accomplish this seemingly impossible task? His name is Santa Claus!
Santa Claus symbolises Christmas and perhaps the entire winter holiday season like nothing else. Santa Claus has emerged as a secular character and that quality allows him to cross cultural and religious lines, placing him in an important position for the entire season rather than for Christmas alone. The celebrations have already kicked in the federal capital with people dining out, entertaining guests and trimming evergreen coniferous trees-real or artificial-as a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas.
However, it is the arrival of Santa Claus that children await most anxiously. Pakistan Today traces Santa’s history from his earliest origins to the shopping mall favourite of today. Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, and simply ‘Santa’, is a figure with legendary, mythical, historical and folkloric origins who, in many western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of good children during the night of Christmas Eve, December 24.
Modern day Santa’s roots can be traced back to the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, which in many traditions, may merge with the tales of the historical figure of the gift-giver Saint Nicholas. Santa Claus is generally depicted as a portly, joyous, white-bearded man wearing a white-cuffed red coat and trousers, and black leather belt and boots.
This image became popular in the United States and Canada in the 19th century due to the significant influence of Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem ‘A Visit From St. Nicholas’ and of the work of caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Nast. The image has been reinforced through song, radio, television and children’s books and films.
According to a tradition which can be traced to the 1820s, Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, with a large number of magical elves, and nine flying reindeer. Since the 20th century, in an idea popularised by the 1934 song ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town’, Santa Claus has been believed to make a list of children throughout the world, categorising them according to their behaviour (‘naughty’ or ‘nice’) and to deliver presents to all of the well-behaved children in the world, and sometimes coal to the naughty children, on Christmas Eve night. He accomplishes this feat with the aid of the elves, who make the toys in his North Pole workshop and the reindeer who pull his sleigh. The tradition of Santa Claus entering dwellings through the chimney reaches back to the tale of Saint Nicholas tossing coins through a window or down a chimney when he found the windows locked.
By the end of the 20th century, mass mechanised production had been fully accepted by the Western public.
That shift was reflected in the modern depiction of Santa’s residence – now often humorously portrayed as a fully mechanised production and distribution facility, equipped with the latest manufacturing technology, and overseen by the elves with Santa and Mrs. Claus as executives and/or managers.
Media usually depicts this as a sort of humorous business, with Santa’s elves acting as a mischievously disgruntled workforce, cracking jokes and pulling pranks on their boss.
The North American traditions associated with Santa Claus are derived from a number of Christmas traditions from various countries. Some rituals (such as visiting a department store Santa) occur in the weeks and days before Christmas while others, such as preparing snacks for Santa, are specific to Christmas Eve. Some rituals, such as setting out stockings to be filled with gifts, are age-old traditions while others, such as NORAD’s tracking of Santa’s sleigh through the night skies on Christmas Eve, are modern inventions.
Writing letters to Santa Claus has been a Christmas tradition for children for many years. These letters normally contain a wish-list of toys and assertions of good behaviour. Many postal services allow children to send letters to Santa which may be answered by postal workers and/or outside volunteers. Writing letters to Santa Claus has the educational benefits of promoting literacy, computer literacy, and e-mail literacy as the letter to Santa is often a child’s first experience of correspondence in many countries.
