St. Nick is now a nickname for Santa, but the real Saint Nicholas was a
3rd century monk, famous for his generosity and kindness towards the
young. He was named the Catholic Church’s patron saint of children
and remained one of the most popular patron saints in Europe over the
centuries. Patron saints are chosen as special protectors over different
aspects of life and honored with a feast day. Saint Nicholas’ feast day
was celebrated on December 6th with family gatherings and gifts for
children if they behaved well that year.
In the Dutch painting to the right, titled The Feast of Saint Nicholas
(1688), a girl receives a doll as her naughty older brother sobs because his
shoe was left empty. In the back, another family member points up the
chimney where Saint Nicholas came down from.
The story and tradition of Saint Nicholas came to the American
colonies when Dutch and German immigrants would gather in New
York and celebrate the feast of Sinter Klaas – the Dutch translation of
Saint Nicholas. However, ideas about Saint Nicholas still varied
widely across America.
In the early 1800’s, Clement Clark Moore, a professor and author in New York, was travelling home to see his family on a
horse-drawn sleigh conducted by a portly and pleasant bearded coachman. That night he wrote a composed a story for his
children he called Account of a Visit from Saint Nicholas. In 1823, a friend of his sent it in to the Troy Sentinel where it was
first published before being reprinted many times over as The Night Before Christmas.
Our modern image of Santa Claus, as well as many of
the popular holiday traditions we celebrate today, were
born in this poem. Saint Nicholas became a fanciful hero
for children. His saintly, austere image and dark robes
were transformed into a “right jolly old elf … dressed all
in fur from his head to his foot” … with a “beard white
as snow … and a little round belly.” Saint Nicholas
engages the services of eight tiny reindeer to pull a
sleigh full of toys for the first time in Moore’s poem.
The tradition of hanging stockings by the fireplace was
also first recorded in The Night Before Christmas.
The famous American cartoonist Thomas Nast cemented
this image of Santa Claus in his drawings for Harper’s
Weekly in the 1860’s. With the Civil War raging,
millions of Americans turned to the paper for news and
each December saw Nast’s fanciful drawings of jolly St.
Nick delivering gifts to soldiers and children. The
magazine cover to the left shows Santa visiting a Civil
War camp during the war, delivering socks to Union
soldiers from his sleigh.
As you stroll through stores during the holidays, make
note of how many decorations harken back to a simple
poem and newspaper sketches and how altered our malls
might be each year if these were just a little different.
Name __________________________________
1. Why do you think ideas about Saint Nicholas varied widely in the American colonies?
2. How is this article organized?
a. By place
b. Over time
c. From most interesting to least
d. Randomly
3. Are there any Christmas traditions that were not described in the article? If so, where might they have
come from?
4. The author’s purpose in writing this article is to:
a. Persuade
b. Convince
c. Inform
d. Discourage
5. Based on its use in the 5th paragraph, the word “austere” most likely means:
a. Cheerful
b. Chubby
c. Funny
d. Serious
6. How do you think Clement Clark Moore would feel about Santa Claus and Christmas today?
7. What does the author mean by “how altered our malls might be each year if these were just a little different”?
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Name ____Answer Key________
1. Why do you think ideas about Saint Nicholas varied widely in the American colonies?
Open to many different answers, but students should recognize the diversity of the colonies and
how immigrants from various countries brought with them their own traditions. There was also
no mass communication systems to bring these all together.
2. How is this article organized?
a. By place
b. Over time
c. From most interesting to least
d. Randomly
3. Are there any Christmas traditions that were not described in the article? If so, where might they have
come from?
Open to many different student answers.
4. The author’s purpose in writing this article is to:
a. Persuade
b. Convince
c. Inform
d. Discourage
5. Based on its use in the 5th paragraph, the word “austere” most likely means:
a. Cheerful
b. Chubby
c. Funny
d. Serious
6. How do you think Clement Clark Moore would feel about Santa Claus and Christmas today?
Open to many different answers.
7. What does the author mean by “how altered our malls might be each year if these were just a little different”?
The author is referring to how if Clement Clark Moore or Thomas Nast had a different image of
Santa Claus or made him look or act different, so many of our perceptions of Christmas would
change. Santa is such an enormous and influential image during the holiday season, it might be hard
to imagine him any different.