50+ Lifestyles

Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Every December 24, millions of people are visited 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? My research reveals that the original St. Nicholas lived in southwestern Turkey in the 4th century. As the bishop of Myra, he was credited with doing a number of miracles involving sailors and children. After his death, this led him to become the patron saint of both groups. As a saint, he was given his own “feast day” that was celebrated on December 6. At about the same time Nicholas lived, Pope Julius I decided to establish a date for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. As the actual time of year for this event was unknown, the Pope decided to assign the holiday to December 25. There had long been a pagan midwinter festival at this time of year, and the Pope hoped to use the holiday to Christianize the celebrations.

Eventually, Saint Nicholas’s feast day also became associated with December 25th, and his connection with Christmas was established. A tradition developed that he would supposedly visit homes on Christmas Eve, and children would place nuts, apples, sweets and other items around the house towelcome him. As the reformation took a hold of much of Europe the popularity of St. Nicholas waned in most Protestant countries, with the exception of Holland.

It’s been said that Dutch settlers brought the tradition of Saint Nicholas to the North American city of New Amsterdam (which the British would later rename “New York”). The first real image of Santa Claus was firmly planted in the American mind by a poem entitled A Visit from St. Nicholas written by Clement Moore in 1822. In the poem, Moore depicts the Saint as a tiny man with a sleigh drawn by eight miniature reindeer. They fly him from house to house, and at each residence he comes down the chimney to fill stockings hung by the fireplace with gifts. Moore had written the poem for the enjoyment of his own family, but in 1823 it was published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel. It became very popular and has been reprinted countless times under the more familiar title, The Night Before Christmas.

Norman Rockwell’s 1921 cover for the magazine The Country Gentleman shows Santa with his modern red and white theme. As time went on the Santa Claus legend grew. Thomas Nast, a 19th century cartoonist, did a series of drawings for Harper’s Weekly. Nash’s vision of Santa had himliving at the North Pole. Nash also gave him a workshop for building toys and a large book filled with the names of children who had been naughty or nice. By the beginning of the 20th century the standard image of Santa Claus was a man in a red suit trimmed with white who resided in the North Pole with Mrs. Claus and a group of industrious toy- making elves.

Almost as popular as Santa himself is his sometimes lead reindeer with a glowing red nose, Rudolph. Unlike Santa’s history, the story of Rudolph can be traced back to a specific author: Robert L. May. May was a copywriter for Montgomery Ward department stores in 1939. The company had been buying and giving away coloring books at Christmas time for many years. May’s boss thought they could save some money by printing their own books and asked May to come up with a story. May thought up the idea of a misfit reindeer that saves the day for Santa on a foggy Christmas Eve.  And the rest is history!

Although engrained as a part of our American culture, Santa has over the years, had a few doubters. In January of 1990, an article appeared in Spy magazine under the name of Richard Waller that was skeptical of Santa’s capability to do what he supposedly does each Christmas Eve.  Waller calculated that Santa, moving from east to west around the globe, could use the different time zones and the rotation of the Earth to extend his night for as long as 31 hours. Since he needs to visit approximately 92 million households according to Waller this means he needs to travel approximately 75.5 million miles. The article states that the distance divided by the time means Santa’s sleigh must move at a speed of 650 miles per second, 3000 times faster than the speed of sound, to complete its route. Waller then went on to calculate that if every child gets a two-pound present, Santa’s sleigh must weigh about 321,300 tons. He then ups that figure to 353,430 tons to account for some 214,200 reindeer he thinks would be needed to pull that heavy a sleigh. The article ends by noting that if the sleigh and team attempt to move through the atmosphere at 650 miles per second they would be exposed to enormous air resistance (the same way a spacecraft gets heated upon reentering the atmosphere) and they would explode in flames.

The most famous skeptic about the existence of Santa was a young girl named Virginia. On September 21st, 1897, the New York Sun published what was to become the most widely read letter to a newspaper.

Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus? Papa says,
“If you see it in the Sun, it’s so.”  Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon
115 West 95th Street

The very lengthy response by editor, Francis Church, in part said, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would the world be if there was no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, and no romance to make tolerable this existence……………. Thank God, he lives and lives forever! A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. “

However Santa does it, he seems to manage each year to delight millions of children on Christmas morning as he has done for over a century. Perhaps it’s just magic!