Santa Claus, St. Nick, Belsnickle and Kris Kringle are all used to describe the celebrated jolly old elf. But these monikers, and a host of others from around the world, have vastly different origin stories.
In his award-winning book, Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers, researcher and author Tom Jerman sets the record straight on America’s version of Santa Claus and treats readers to a comprehensive history of the world’s midwinter gift-givers, showcasing the extreme diversity in their depictions as well as the many traits and functions these characters share.
Jerman began collecting Santa Claus figurines in the 1980s as a hobby, and the sheer variety of Santa Claus incarnations he encountered fueled his curiosity.
“Santa is whoever you think he is,” Jerman said in an interview. “You can envision him any way you want to envision him; there are no constrictions on who can be Santa Claus.”
The product of years of exhaustive historical research, Santa Claus Worldwide is the first legitimate history of Santa Claus in more than a decade, and the first history in more than 100 years to provide a comprehensive look at the Yuletide gift-givers throughout the world.
Some of Jerman’s fascinating insights include:
– “Santa Claus” is not merely the American name for St. Nicholas.
– Jerman also corrects a significant inaccuracy perpetrated in 1953 by an eminent Berkeley historian, Charles W. Jones, that American author Washington Irving created, in effect, the American Santa Claus.
– The original American Santa was one of the shabby, unkempt, secular gift-givers known by two dozen different names in Germany who immigrated to America with German children during the early nineteenth century. One of them, Pelznickel (“Nicholas in furs”), became known as Belsnickle in Pennsylvania while another, Christkindl (“Christ child”), became known as Kriss Kringle (more commonly written as “Kris” today).
– The name “Santeclaus,” the bearded German gift-giver who descended down the chimney and left gifts in stockings on Christmas and a sleigh pulled by a flying reindeer were united in 1821 by publisher William B. Gilley in a book called The Children’s Friend, which disappeared from history until it was rediscovered in 1953.
-And so much more.
Ultimately, Santa Claus Worldwide proves, conclusively, the existence of Santa and his impact on our world.
“Santa indisputably exists as the symbol of Christmas, and Christmas represents our most noble virtues,” Jerman says. “Symbols are real, and they can be very powerful.”
About the Author
Tom A. Jerman, a resident of Asheville, N.C., has bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and journalism and a juris doctorate degree from the University of Utah. Employed as a copy editor with The Salt Lake Tribune between 1974-78, he went on to practice labor and employment law for 35 years. In 2015, he took early retirement to pursue his desire to write something more interesting and enduring than legal treatises.
A serious collector, Jerman has amassed some 4,500 Santa figurines and ornaments, and thousands of antique postcards printed between 1900 and 1910. The enormous diversity of figures — temporal, geographic, historical, size, attire, date of gift-giving, mode of travel — prompted him to write Santa Claus Worldwide, the first volume of a planned trilogy that will include a volume on the authorship of “The Night Before Christmas” and a volume on collecting Santa Claus figurines. If all goes according to plan, the second volume will be published in winter 2023, the bicentennial of “The Night Before Christmas.” The third volume, currently under construction, will be a guide for individuals who collect Santa Claus figurines and ornaments.
For more information, please visit http://acollectionofsantas.com
Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Midwinter Gift-Bringers
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
ISBN-10: 1476680930
ISBN-13: 978-1476680934
Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and other online retailers.
There is definitely a connection between the celebration called christ.mass not christmas..the christ.mass tree and this one whom they have called father christ.mass. and Christ does not play a part in it. though Christ does have a major part within the story of creation it is not at the period called christ.mass
All three..christ.mass the christ.mass tree and this one called father christ.mass are celebrated because its a remembrance of when the one who is the Father of the world and whos form is light came to meet the children whos form is also light. this is why the tree is that of light. the one called father christ.mass is actually remembered in the world as Adam the one whom the highest of high Father imparts the gift of knowledge symbolized as gifts under the tree to the children..
The last time I checked the History Books is that Santa Lives in Dominica…
wow election over. the country dead. nothing to report so DNO posting stories about santa claus that nobody going to read lol
DNO has been compromised. I spent a great deal of time these couple days thinking about this medium. This shows that Skeritt’s power is like an umbrella cover every aspect of the country. Recently there have been some publications which made no sense. But these people at DNO must eat; as well as the 98% who rely on Skeritt for support. Turning to the women farmers project -It’s frustrating to see these people (women) who are the beneficiaries of all sorts of support from Skeritt. I will not attempt to say more. But right in my village are a few young women who are “farmers” and their produce are transported to wherever for free! There are other farmers who have been crying out for help with access roads to their land; but the government ears are blocked as the road they need to unblock. Sad situation in Dominica.
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It’s long overdue that we, in the Caribbean islands, should refrain from lying to and confusing our young boys and girls.
A bright Caribbean child who has never travelled outside the region cannot relate to snow, chimneys, deer, sleighs, reindeer. Let’s just stop this Santa Claus/Saint Nicholas fallacy. Now Halloween has invaded our culture. What’s next?
Let’s teach the children to give at Christmas time rather than looking to receive from the fictitious Santa Claus. That’s a better life lesson for sure.