The great American caricaturist and cartoonist, Thomas Nast, published the first sketch of Santa Claus in Harper’s Weekly, in 1862, during the early, dark days of the Civil War. Matthew Brady tried to get photographs, but he could never get the old elf to stay still long enough for those early cameras to get a clear image. Of course, Nast’s most famous image is from his illustration published in 1870 of Clement C. Moore’s 1823 description in “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”
Every Christmastime brings hundreds or thousands of essays (like this one) about dear old Santa. Is he real? Do you believe? Children ask the same question of their friends and parents and grandparents. The answer usually varies depending on the age of the person asked.
My answer has always been the same: YES!! Only the rationale have changed as I have grown older.
When I was a kid, it was easy—in my family—to believe in Santa. My parents were children themselves when my brothers and I were born. When you’re a nineteen year-old mother of three little boys, or their twenty-three year-old father, just promising to pay the rent or knowing that there will be food on the table next week requires belief in the improbable! Believing in the magic that is Santa Claus isn’t much of a stretch from there. Every year we told one another, “I believe!” The more you say it out loud, and the more people who are willing to say it with you, the easier it is to continue your belief. [It’s sort of like voting….]
Neither public school nor Sunday School taught the belief out of me. In fact, it did just the opposite. I learned about other cultural versions of Santa: the historical Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Pere or Papa Noel, Kris Kringle, Shendang Laoren, Grandfather Frost, Babbo Natale, Black Peter, På Norsk, Sinter Klaas, Jultomten, Kerstman, Joulupukki, Christindl, and others. The lesson I took from this? People all over the world believe!
I have most noticed in the last decade or so that despite these world traditions from so many other cultures, the image and details best known around the globe come from Moore’s and Nast’s Santa Claus. It can be disconcerting. I wonder how little children in the southern hemisphere, in the equatorial tropics in particular, justify or rationalize Santa in his heavy red suit, boots, and mittens and arriving on a sleigh. I mean, believing in flying reindeer is one thing, but understanding how an “adult” would dress like an Eskimo when it’s over 100°? Even a two year-old knows that’s silly. I guess that’s proof of the influence of the United States in the world. No matter what else those in other countries might think of us, if Santa is part of our image in the world, it’s not all bad.
Actually, I just answered my own question and explained why I can easily say that I believe in Santa Claus. Children don’t have to justify or rationalize. That isn’t believing. Children believe in magic, especially the magic of Santa—a giving heart.
Any time I feel like the magic is waning, that maybe Santa Claus isn’t real, all I have to do is look into my grandsons’ eyes…. Do you want to enjoy the holiday? Believe like a little child.
