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Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure [1] originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Christmas Eve.
"Santa Claus" derives from his Dutch name, "Sint Nikolaas," or "Sinter Klaas" for short. Dutch immigrants began to spread knowledge of the saint to the American public in the late 1700s.
Mrs. Santa Claus is mentioned by name in the pages of the Yale Literary Magazine in 1851, where the student author (whose name is given only as "A. B.") writes of the appearance of Santa Claus at a Christmas party: [I]n bounded that jolly, fat and funny old elf, Santa Claus. His array was indescribably fantastic.
Modern dictionaries consider the terms Father Christmas and Santa Claus to be synonymous. [98] [99] The respective characters are now to all intents and purposes indistinguishable, although some people are still said to prefer the term 'Father Christmas' over 'Santa Claus', nearly 150 years after Santa Claus's arrival in England. [1]
In fact, the origins of Santa Claus can be traced all the way back to a monk named Saint Nicholas, who was born between 260 and 280 A.D. in a village called Patara, which is part of modern-day Turkey.
Writing of a period around 1830, Brown says, "we did not hear of" Santa Claus. Instead, the tradition called for a visit by a different character altogether: He was known as Kriskinkle, Beltznickle and sometimes as the Xmas woman. Children then not only saw the mysterious person, but felt him or rather his stripes upon their backs with his switch.
December is here and, as expected, Santa and his elves are busy at work at the North Pole. After all, there are last-minute toys to finish cobbling and names to add to the "Nice List," before the ...
Christmas gift-bringers in Europe. This is a list of Christmas and winter gift-bringer figures from around the world. The history of mythical or folkloric gift-bringing figures who appear in winter, often at or around the Christmas period, is complex, and in many countries the gift-bringer – and the gift-bringer's date of arrival – has changed over time as native customs have been ...