St Nicholas, Santa and Befana
A bishop, a poem, a cartoonist and an old woman with a broom. How the present-bringers got here.
The real St Nicholas
St Nicholas lived in the 4th century in Myra, in Asia Minor, near modern Demre in Turkey. Encyclopaedia Britannica: St Nicholas
His feast day is 6 December in the Western churches and 19 December in the Eastern churches. In many countries children get presents on 6 December, St Nicholas Day. Encyclopaedia Britannica: St Nicholas
He is a patron saint of children and of sailors. Encyclopaedia Britannica: St Nicholas
From Nicholas to Santa
Santa Claus is also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Sinterklaas. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Santa Claus
The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, often called “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”, was first printed without a name in the Troy Sentinel, a New York newspaper, on 23 December 1823. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Visit from St. Nicholas
The reindeer in the 1823 poem are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem. Modern versions say Donner and Blitzen instead. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Visit from St. Nicholas Santa’s sleigh is said to be pulled by eight or nine reindeer. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Santa Claus
The red suit
The way Santa is drawn today is based on pictures by the cartoonist Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly, starting in 1863. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Santa Claus
Adverts painted by Haddon Sundblom for the Coca-Cola Company from 1931 helped fix the image of a white-bearded Santa in a red suit, but that image has roots in Nast’s 19th-century drawings. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Santa Claus
In Australia
In Australia, where Christmas dinner is often eaten on the beach, Santa wears red swimming trunks as well as his white beard. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
Befana
In Italy, Befana is an old woman who fills children’s stockings with presents at Epiphany, 6 January. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Befana Befana rides or carries a broom. Naughty children may get a lump of coal or a piece of straw from it. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Befana
Tradition says Befana’s cottage was in Urbania, Italy, which holds a festival for her in the days before Epiphany. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Befana
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