Santa Claus as we know him today has only existed since the nineteenth century , and he first slid down the chimney in a 1812 book by Washington Irving . But the open fireplace served as a venue for magical visitors long before Santa Claus . During the 15thcentury , the Gallic scholar Petrus Mamoris became interested about a widespread feeling that witch could pass through self-coloured objects like rampart and unopen doors so as to inscribe homes . Believing Christians were grant too much business leader to the occult arts , Mamoris offer a practical explanation : beldam , extremely low frequency , and the similar plainly entered via thechimney . This idea gained far-flung cultural currency . In Renaissance - era fairy tales , fairiesappearedvia chimney , and during the same period , witcheswere tell to fly up their chimneys on broomstick to attend Sabbat meetings .
Throughout European folklore , the hearth and chimney act as aliminal spaceconnecting the innate and supernatural worlds . According to legend , many supernatural creatures exploit this special intermediary space to go into homes — for good or ill . Scottish and English legend featurethe brownie , a household spirit that aids in domesticated tasks , but only at night , and enters and loss via the chimney . In Slovenia , a shape - shifting fairy calledthe Skratbrings rich people to human family unit who cultivate his party favour , fly down the chimney in a igneous form when delivering money . According to Celtic lore , a nursery bogey calledthe bodachsneaks down chimney and kidnaps minor . Some lamp chimney - traveling spirits appear specifically during the winter holidays . In Greece , goblins known asKallikantzaroislip down the chimney to make for havoc during the Twelve Days of Christmas . Italy’sLa Befana , sometimes address theChristmas witch , pitch gifts the Nox before Epiphany , will her present tense in shoes jell by the hearth .
While La Befana was n’t making widespread delivery in the early United States , other mythical holiday gift - bringers were . Pelznichol — also called Pelznikel , Belsnickel , or Bellschniggle — traveled among German immigrant communities in 19th - centuryPennsylvania , scaring naughty children and rewarding serious I . This whip - wielding wild humankind was a routine more intimidating than passably honest-to-god Santa Claus , but he served a alike aim .
According toa December 19 , 1827 issue of thePhiladelphia Gazette , “ He is the herald of the jolly old elfe ‘ Christkindle ’ or ‘ St. Nicholas , ’ and makes his personal appearance , arrange in skins or old clothes , his side black , a bell , a whip , and a pocket full of cakes or nut case … It is no sooner dark than the Bellschniggle ’s doorbell is heard flutter from house to house … He slips down the lamp chimney , at the faerie 60 minutes of midnight , and deposits his presents quietly in the prepared stocking . ”Pelznicholcomes from the German wordpelz , meaning hide or fur coat , andNichol , meaning Nicholas . Literally “ Furry Nicholas , ” Pelznichol was a forerunner to the American Santa Claus — and amythical companionof the same ancient ideal .
While the character of Santa Claus draw from numerous mythical sources , his namesake is St. Nicholas , the 4th - century Bishop of Myra , an ancient town in what is now Turkey . In the most famous tale involving St. Nicholas , the bishop anonymously deliver cup of tea of Au to a poor family to apply as dowries for their daughters , hold on the Fatherhood from sell the lady friend into prostitution . Early versions of the story have the saint tossing the money through the window — appropriate , given that St. Nicholas lived during the third and fourth centuries,900 yearsbefore the lamp chimney . But as the chronicle changed over time , St. Nicholas began dropping the amber down the chimney . A 14th - centuryfrescoin a Serbian church service shows the lamp chimney had become part of the caption by the former Renaissance period .
Thanks to his generous dowry gifts and a host of miracles — includingresurrectinga group of off boys who had been chop into pieces — St. Nicholas became the frequenter nonesuch of children , and his feast mean solar day was associated with special treats for the niggling ace . By the sixteenth one C , it was tradition for Dutch nestling to leave their shoe on the fireside the night before the Feast of St. Nicholas . They would then wake to find the shoes filled with candy and presents , which they believed the saint had lowered down the lamp chimney . Though Catholic saints were renounced during the Reformation , St. Nicholas stayed democratic in the Low Countries , even among someDutch Protestants , and Dutch settler brought their tradition to North America .
The nameSanta Clausis an Americanized version of the reduce Dutch name for St. Nicholas , Sinterklaas , but Dutch settler did not popularize him , as most of these were ideal - averse Reformation Dutch , and their influence waned once New Amsterdam became New York . In 1809 , it was writer Washington Irving who helped spark an interest in St. Nicholas when he boast the apotheosis in his satiricalKnickerbocker ’s chronicle of New York , which made play of antiquarians obsessed with the metropolis ’s Dutch inheritance . In an expatiate rendering ofKnickerbocker’spublished in 1812 , Irvingaddeda reference — the first known — to St. Nicholas “ rattl[ing ] down the chimney ” himself , rather than merely dropping the presents down .
It was the famous verse form “ A Visit from St. Nicholas”—known as “ ’ Twas the Night Before Christmas”—that popularize the estimate of Santa Claus tumbling down the chimney . Initially published anonymously , the poem first appeared in print in 1823 and it was n’t until 1844 that Clement Clark Moore , a prof of Hebrew and Oriental Languages at a bible college , claimed the study , though his paternity is stilldisputedby some . The verse form features Santa Claus fall down the lamp chimney “ with a bound , ” then rise up the lamp chimney after extradite his gift . The poem began to be bring out every year in newspapers and magazines , and the illustrator and political cartoonist Thomas Nastcementedits visual sensation of Santa Claus with his drawings of a plump , upbeat , whiskered man deliver giving in a sled .
Millions of American tyke came to believe that Santa Claus slid down the chimney to deliver their present . But what does Santa do if there ’s no lamp chimney ? As ember and wood stoves claim the seat of open fireplaces in many American homes , a parallel tradition develop : Santa squeezed down the cooking stove pipe . By 1857 , this image was unwashed enough thatThe New York Timesreferredto it as a given .
It might seem ridiculous to opine the portly gift - bringer somehow stuffing himself into a six - column inch stove pipe , but during the mid-19th 100 , Santa Claus was envisioned differently in one key way : he was miniature . In his poem , Moore calls Santa “ a jolly old elf , ” suggesting his size is elfish : he is a “ little old driver ” in a “ miniature sleigh ” with “ eight lilliputian reindeer . ” He has a “ droll footling mouth , ” and it ’s his “ little round venter ” that “ shook when he express joy , like a bowlful of jelly . ”
exemplification from the time , including many ofNast ’s drawings , show a miniature Santa who needs tostandon a chair to hit the stockings on the mantelpiece . But while this elfin Santa could slide easily down the chimney , even he would have difficulty squeezing through a stove pipe . In publish letters to Santa , some childreninquiredabout his method of entranceway : “ Do you creep down kitchen stove tobacco pipe ? ” Of course , Santa Claus is magical , so while shaver may have been curious about the practicalities take , it was n’t a roadblock to belief . One boytold Santaconfidently in 1903 , “ I see for you every night in the kitchen stove . ”
Adults were not as sanguine . In 1893,Harper ’s Weeklypublisheda disquieted thought piece about the decline of Santa Claus . The range tube made it harder to consider in Santa , the author abide by , but the rise of steam radiators and blistering - air heating made it fundamentally unsufferable :
This author need n’t have worried ; Americans were not about to rent Santa Claus disappear from ethnic memory . Indeed , as the twentieth century dawned , he became only more popular , as businesses enlist him for copious advertising campaign , like the illustrious thirties Coca - Cola adsdesignedby Haddon Sundblom .
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Additional Sources : Christmas in America : A HistoryConsumer Rites : The Buying & merchandising of American HolidaysNicholas : The Epic Journey from Saint to Santa ClausSanta Claus , Last of the Wild Men : The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas , Spanning 50,000 Years
