22 — Wednesday, November 30, 1988 - North Shore News

Santa ‘Claus has had many

He has been depicted as a

Right? Wrong.
white-bearded, priestly looking

WHEN YOU’VE seen one Santa
Santa has many faces.

Claus, you’ve seen them all.

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man in religious robes, and a
black-bearded buccaneer in a furry
black suit.

One version shows Santa in a
military uniform. In others, he
sports versions of the popular red
and white suit.

Santa was a tall, thin man until
1853 when Baldwin, Adams & Co.
published an engraving showing a
paunchy St. Nick with a scragely
beard driving a team of equally
ragged reindeer.

The roly-poly version of Santa
gained wide acceptance in the
1860’s when Thomas Nast, a
famous cartoonist of the period,
began drawing the broad-faced old
gentleman for magazine covers and
bookplates.

Nast’s Santa was 2 squat, pixie-
like figure, round and jolly — a
throwback to the Santa who slid
down the chimney in Clement
Clarke Moore’s 1822 classic, “‘The
Night Before Christmas.’’

Nast popularized not only the
figure of Santa Claus but also
many of the other practices with
which he is associated at

Christmas: manufacturing the toys
in his North Pole workshop, keep-
ing records of good and bad
children, receiving and answering
their fetters and driving his
reindeer.

Nast also is credited with
creating Santa’s red coat, the result
of a cartoon during the Civil War
which patrioticaliy showed Santa
in a red, white and blue suit.

In the early 1900s, variations of
Nast’s Santa appeared.

A postcard, dated 1909, shows
Santa in a red robe trimmed with
brown fur.

A 1917 grecting actually depicts
Santa as somewhat sinister. San-
ta’s bulbous nose and cheeks are
red, but thin eyebrows, slanted
eyes and a devilish grin combine to
give him a wicked look.

Today’s cards portray Santa in
any number of modern situations
including watching T.V. with his
reindeer, relaxing on the beach,
engaging in sports activities, work-
ing at a computer and lying on the
psychiatrist’s couch.

Xmas cards have
a long history

WHEN YOU send your Christmas
cards this year, you will be fulfill-
ing a tradition that is in its 144th

ear.

The first Christmas card was
mailed in London, England in
1843, A businessman named Henry
Coie was the first to use the new
Penny Post mail system to ac-
complish his greetings of the
season.

Cole commissioned an_ artist
friend named John Calcott
Horsley to design a card he could
send to all his acquaintances.

The classifieds point you
in the right direction

How to Solve the Market place Maze
Threading your way through store after
store trying to find what you need

can be an exercise in futility. Let

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eliminate unnecessary shopping trips.

Sell it in the Classsifieds

The fastest return on the advertising
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The result was a three-panelled
card, with the main illustration
showing the elders at a family par-
ty raising wine glasses in a toast.

The panels on either side showed
two of the oldest traditions of
Christmas — feeding the hungry
and clothing the needy,

The message on Henry Cole’s
Christmas card was, “A Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year
to you.”

One hundred and forty-four
years later, this original message
remains the most popular one-of
all on Christmas cards.

Cariboots
are handcrafted from the
finest sheep wool for
optimum comfort & w warmth.
\ Soncthinggs & sspecia a
Lonsdale Quay Market
984-7243
The Landing
687-7243

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