Santa
Claus
The American
version of the Santa Claus figure received its
inspiration and its name from the Dutch legend of Sinter Klaas, brought by
settlers to New York in the 17th century.
As early as 1773
the name appeared in the American press as "St. A Claus," but it was
the popular author Washington Irving who gave Americans their first detailed
information about the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. In his History of New
York, published in 1809 under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, Irving
described the arrival of the saint on horseback (unaccompanied by Black Peter)
each Eve of Saint Nicholas.
This
Dutch-American Saint Nick achieved his fully Americanized form in 1823 in the
poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas more commonly known as The Night Before
Christmas by writer Clement Clarke Moore. Moore included such details as the
names of the reindeer; Santa Claus's laughs, winks, and nods; and the method by
which Saint Nicholas, referred to as an elf, returns up the chimney. (Moore's
phrase "lays his finger aside of his nose" was drawn directly from
Irving's 1809 description.)
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