{"id":295944,"date":"2022-12-18T13:37:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T17:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=295944"},"modified":"2022-12-18T13:38:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T17:38:37","slug":"santa-claus-origin-story-sets-the-record-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/christmas\/santa-claus-origin-story-sets-the-record-straight\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Claus origin story sets the record straight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Photo credit: Laura James<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In his award-winning book,\u00a0Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers<\/em>, researcher and author Tom Jerman sets the record straight on America\u2019s version of Santa Claus and treats readers to a comprehensive history of the world\u2019s midwinter gift-givers, showcasing the extreme diversity in their depictions as well as the many traits and functions these characters share.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanta is whoever you think he is,\u201d Jerman said in an interview. \u201cYou can envision him any way you want to envision him; there are no constrictions on who can be Santa Claus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The product of years of exhaustive historical research,\u00a0Santa Claus Worldwide<\/em>\u00a0is 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.<\/p>\n

Some of Jerman\u2019s fascinating insights include:<\/p>\n

– \u201cSanta Claus\u201d is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0merely the American name for St. Nicholas.<\/p>\n

– 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.<\/p>\n

– 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 (\u201cNicholas in furs\u201d), became known as Belsnickle in Pennsylvania while another, Christkindl (\u201cChrist child\u201d), became known as Kriss Kringle (more commonly written as \u201cKris\u201d today).<\/p>\n

– The name \u201cSanteclaus,\u201d 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\u00a0The Children\u2019s Friend<\/em>, which disappeared from history until it was rediscovered in 1953.<\/p>\n

-And so much more.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Santa Claus Worldwide proves, conclusively, the existence of Santa and his impact on our world.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanta indisputably exists as the symbol of Christmas, and Christmas represents our most noble virtues,\u201d Jerman says. \u201cSymbols are real, and they can be very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tom A. Jerman, a resident of Asheville, N.C., has bachelor\u2019s degrees in philosophy and journalism and a juris doctorate degree from the University of Utah.\u00a0Employed as a copy editor with\u00a0The Salt Lake Tribune<\/em>\u00a0between 1974-78, he went on to practice labor and employment law for 35 years.\u00a0In 2015, he took early retirement to pursue his desire to write something more interesting and enduring than legal treatises.<\/p>\n

A serious collector, Jerman has amassed some 4,500 Santa figurines and ornaments, and thousands of antique postcards printed between 1900 and 1910.\u00a0The enormous diversity of figures \u2014 temporal, geographic, historical, size, attire, date of gift-giving, mode of travel \u2014 prompted him to write\u00a0Santa Claus Worldwide,<\/em>\u00a0the first volume of a planned trilogy that will include a volume on the authorship of \u201cThe Night Before Christmas\u201d 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 \u201cThe Night Before Christmas.\u201d The third volume, currently under construction, will be a guide for individuals who collect Santa Claus figurines and ornaments.<\/p>\n

For more information, please visit\u00a0http:\/\/acollectionofsantas.com<\/a>,<\/u>\u00a0or follow the author on Twitter at @tomajerman.<\/p>\n

Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Midwinter Gift-Bringers<\/em><\/p>\n

Publisher: McFarland & Co.<\/p>\n

ISBN-10: \u200e1476680930<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: \u200e978-1476680934<\/p>\n

Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and other online retailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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. 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