How did Santa Claus come to America?

????Who is the real Santa Claus?

When I was a small child, my parents told me about Santa Claus.

He brought gifts to good little children. He gave a piece of coal to naughty little children.

He knew they were good because he kept two lists during the year.

??Good children. Naughty children.

I was always on the good list as daughter #1. My siblings…not so much in my opinion.

I was 7 years older than my next sister and had the privilege of position…mother’s little helper?and all.

Curious my parents never took me to sit on Santa’s lap.?

??They gave me gifts in his name but I never believed in that guy.

He had jolly red cheeks and my parents were brown.

??I always knew they bought my blue bicycle, my pink petticoat and whatever else?

I found in those wrapped boxes under the tree.

However, let’s look at the long history that led to our current image of Santa Claus.

The legend begins around A.D 280 in Patara, Myra.?

????That’s a little town in modern day Turkey.

A rich man was born.?

??He inherited his wealth and traveled around the countryside giving it away to the less fortunate.?

He is best known for his gift to a poor man’s three daughters.?

??He gave them money for a dowry to get married, so their father wouldn’t sell them into?

prostitution. ?

He became more and more popular over time in Europe, especially in Holland.

Upon his death, he had become known as St. Nick, the patron of children and sailors.?

Dutch people celebrate St. Nick on Dec. 6, the day he died.

??This has become the lucky date to make large purchases or to get married.

Eventually, St. Nick arrived in New York in 1774.?

A New York newspaper reported that the Dutch families in town were celebrating St.Nick’s day.

FYI, The name Santa Claus evolved from Nick’s Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened version?of Sint Nicolaas. (Dutch for Saint Nicholas.)

In 1804, John Pintard spread the image of St. Nicholas that we’re most familiar with today. ?

He distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the New York Historical Society’s annual meeting.

???The background of the engraving contained the now familiar images including stocking filled?with toys and fruit hung over a fireplace.

At our house in Menlo Park, California, we had a fireplace.?

I bought three velvet forest green stockings for our little girls.

My husband filled them with healthy fruit snacks from Trader Joe’s and we hung them over the fireplace on the pedestal hooks of brass angels.?

So pretty.

Backtrack to 1820. An Episcopal minister wrote a long poem to entertain his three?daughters.

It was called “Twas the Night Before Christmas”.

Although he was embarrassed at???the silliness of the images in the poem, it became the American icon for St. Nick’s image as?we know it today.

Then in 1841, a Philadelphia store advertised a peek at a live Santa Claus model.

Thousands of children and parents came out to see it.?

Well after that, other stores started to advertise visiting Santa and telling him your wishes.

Shopping malls all over America have jumped on the bandwagon until this day.?

Recently, I visited McDonough Square in Georgia to get a box of chocolates at the?

best little sweet shop outside of Disneyland.

The square has the small town feel of a 1940’s movie like “It’s a Wonderful Life.”?

Any how there was a line of parents and children around the block waiting to see Santa.?

In 1881 Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, finally drew the cartoon that matched Rev. Moore’s?poem about Santa: red-suit, flowing white beard and red cheeks.

It was published in Harper’s Weekly.

That is the exact image of that Santa in McDonough Square!

I chose not to stand in line. I didn’t have a grandson with me.

What I want you to know is…

Although Christmas gift giving traditionally targets children and others,

If you’re tired of being the fifth wheel on a vacation with friends or on a friends’s night out,

I’m available to answer your questions about dating or meeting a life partner in 2023.

?It’s perfectly ok to give yourself the gift of a spiritual consultation about moving from where you are now to where you want to be.

?It’s perfectly ok to give yourself the gift of knowing how to move around what’s blocking love in your life.

?It’s perfectly ok to give yourself the gift of a professional consultation to get the overview of your love journey.

Just hurry.?

The 20% discount on the Spiritual Consultation is over Dec.31, 2022.

You can book your 90 minute consultation here.