Santa Claus the World Over

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 141, 18 December 1928, Page 30

Santa Claus the World Over

By Leslie Reid

Wherever the spirit of Christmas prevails and tho good old festival is celebrated in the good old spirit of friendliness and good-will, there you will And that Santa Claus is the most honoured guest. He is known and welcomed tho world over. It is very strange that a boyish saint from tho dark ages of European history should have become the patron saint of children at Christmastide, and that even his own particular day has been pushed forward three weeks for the convenience of the littlo ones. Yet so it is. Listen to the glorious story. Santa Claus is a corruption of St. 'Nicholas. And who was he? Ho was born in Asia Minor, in the fourth century, and became Bishop of Myra at an early age. Why he became the patron saint of children is not difficult to discover, for he certainly wrought valiantly on their behalf. On one occasion ho heard that a noblemau proposed to-put his three young daughters _ to death because ho had no money with which to endow them, and was not disposed to leave them to the tender mercy of the wicked world. St. Nicholas marched straight to his house, blew away the dark clouds that surrounded it, and through an open window cast a purse of gold which enabled the nobleman to portion his eldest daughter. Tho next night he flung in another purse, which went to the nobleman's second daughter; and on the third'night he provided for tho youngest daughter in a similar way. By this time the nobleman was on the watch for his unknown benefactor, and on the third night he seized St. Nicholas and would not let him go until ho had disclosed his identity. . On another occasion St. Nicholas restored to life two boys who had been murdered by an avaricious imi-kcoper and stowed in a tub of brine. St. Nicholas saw the crime in a vision and, hastening to tho innn, accused the landlord of his horrible deed. Then he prayed that tho children should be restored to life. No sooner was his prayer ended than the boys- sprang out of the tub and cast themselves at tho saint's feet in gratitude. Iv tho Bodleian Library at Oxford you may see a fine illustrated manuscript showing St. Nicholas in ecclesiastical robes holding a crozicr in his left hand, while his right hand is extended in benediction to the boys as they rise from tho tub of brine. PATRON SAINT OF CHILDREN. No wonder that St. Nicholas became the patron saint of children, that the eve of his feast day, 6th December, was celebrated in nearly every country in Europe; and that the festival, moved onwards by three weeks, is honoured each Christmas, especially among Eng-lish-speaking people. In China Santa Claus appears as a tea trader, and goes round the villages carrying his presents for tho children in two flat trays slung across his shoulder on a bamboo. We in England know Santa Claus (as we may henceforth call him) as a rosy-cheeked old gentleman with kind blue eyes and a beard of snow. In Germany he has a heavy grey moustache, his eyes gleam behind a pair of spectacles, and on his head is a flat cap. Instead of a Christmas tree ho carried round his neck a bagful of presents, which ho distributes among tho children as they lio sleeping. The gifts aro awarded with discrimination, for in company with Santa Claus goes his Knicht Klaubauf, who takes tho naughty children, and carries them off for punishment. ,J Santa Claus everywhere comes down tho chimney. For many years' the English Ambassador in Berlin used to entertain the littlo chimney sweeps of that city on Christmas Eve, in commemoration of the fact that tho father of a former ambassador, when a lad, was stolen as a child and put to service to a master sweep, who compelled Mm to climb the flues. He was not rescued , until he was sent to tho very house from which ho had boon stolen, to Rweep the chimney, and was there recognised. In Austria there prevails the curious custom of young men impersonating" Santa Clauso and going from house to house to examine the childron in their ■ catechism and award them accordingly. As in somo parts of Germany, as we have seen, awards and punishments go together. Tho Austrian Santa Claus gives a figure of himself to good children, but tho naughty ones receive a krampus or demon, a toy imp which has a black face, red lips, a red tongue hanging out of his mouth, and a birch in his, hand. Belgian children arc mado to rejoice by chocolate images of St. Nicholas, or tho "Boy Bishop," as ho is known. Tho patron saint of the littlo tmes is represented in robes and mitre, and very often ho is shown in company with tho little victims of tho innkeeper whom ho raised to life. Whatever the ether presents of Santa Claus may be, he must never forgot lo put a chocolate

bishop in the stocking of the Belgian child. . St. Nicholas is said to be the only saint who survived the Kefonnation iv Holland, and he is still immensely popular there, alike among tho children and among their warm-hearted parents. Curiously, the festival is still celebrated on its old date, 6th December. On the eve of that day Santa Claus, clad in

his familiar robes, enters and holds a court or! inquiry into tho children's behaviour in family life. To tho good ones ho promises a present by the following morning if they will leave their shoes ou tho hearthstone iv the parlour. The children also leave hay, carrots, aud water for the team of gallant white horses which ho has to use in order that he may get over the vast spaces of the earth iv a single night. TWO FESTIVALS. Uut, you will ask, how did Santa | Claus, whose festal day is 6th December, come to bo associated with Christmas, nineteen days later, us he invariably is in England and America? Wo in England forgot St. Nicholas when tho Reformation occurred, but our good friends the Dutch remembered him, and when some of them settled in America, iv what was then New Amsterdam, and is now New York, they tookthe old customs of 6th December with them, and gave their little children presents in the name of Santa Claus, as they had been wont to receive them in Ihc> d.'i'-« ;>f their own childhood. But it waa a far cry from 6th December to tin m... ..a Day, 25th December, and many a Dutch settler, not too well off in those hard pioneer days, estimated the weight of his purse as he contemplated the two festivals. Then someone had t. brain wave. Why not combine the twoV. This was done, and henceforward there was only one festival where formerly there were a couple. But the single festival is a joyous one. A favourite poem across the water tells how a "miniature sleigh and a tiny reindeer" suddenly appeared on the night before Christmas, driven by St. 1 Nicholas, who slipped down the chimney into the room where tho children lay sleepiug. He spake not a word, but went straight to his work, Aud filled all the stockings—then turned with a jerk, And laying his iinger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney ho ro3o He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle , And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. Old customs die hard, it is said, but they do die, and in a progressive country like America it is not surprising to find Santa Claus discraddiug his sleigh and reindeer in favour of an aeroplane. Some day, perhaps, we shall find tho old gentleman staying at home by the fire and dispatching his gifts by wireless!