Know How The Tradition Of Santa Claus Started
4. Why is Santa dressed this way?
In the 19th century, a popular cartoonist, Thomas Nast, did a series of drawings on Santa for Harper’s Weekly, in which more fun elements were added. He imagined Santa to be living in the North Pole and having his own workshop for building toys, with a large book having names of naughty and nice children. While most drawings of the 19th century had Santa wearing suits of various colors (red, purple, green etc.), it was Coca-Cola that did heavy campaigns with St. Nick dressed in red and enjoying their product. They heavily popularized Santa in red and white clothes (their logo colors are also red and white). But by that time, people had anyway started registering Santa in their head as a fluffy figure in red and white, and Norman Rockwell (an American artist) drew Santa’s modern day images, one of which came on the 1921 cover for the magazine ‘The Country Gentleman’.
5. Why is Santa so important on Christmas?
Even though the original St. Nicholas feast was thought to be on December 6th, the date of his death, it was later decided that the feast would be combined with that of the celebrations of the birth of Jesus on December 25th. While Jesus Christ is the most important figure on Christmas, people also include Santa in their celebrations because he stands for generosity and helping the poor and needy. Santa spreads a message, similar to that of Christ and takes the Christmas spirit forward in a great way, thereby making him an important part of all Christmas celebrations.
So now you can enlighten other people and impress them with your Santa trivia and knowledge. The stories of St. Nicholas are also great to share with kids, in order to teach them the real meaning of Christmas and encourage them to spread the Christmas spirit and experience the joy of giving.
