Santa Claus

New Zealand Tablet, 24 December 1908, Page 41

Santa Claus

Of all Christmas customs the best known is also the most recent. Santa. Claus is a modern, improvement. . Saint Nicholas, it is not to "be denied, is a fairly^ hoary figure and he has long -been known as the patron saint of children. J-ust why is not clear. Practically^ nothing is known about the good saint except that he died Archbishop of Myra in the fourth century. There are one or two legends connecting him with a love and a compassion Jot young people, but there are also legends which cause him to be associated with sailors. He is also claimed as a patron by brigands, on account of an ad-venture which he is said to have had with a band of freebooters. . Lastly, he is claimed by the profession of pawn brokers, and it is a fact that he is usually represented in mediaeval' art with three golden balls in one outstretched hand. A century or so ago it was the custom in Germany for all the parents in a town or village to send the presents they designed for their children to one chosen individual, who called at each house clad in a motley robe, a mask, and a huge flaxen wig. Knocking on the door, he called in a loud voice for all the good children to appear and receive the gifts which the Christ-child, the Christ-Kind-lem, had sent them. This was the primeval Kris Kringle. Coleridge describes this custom, and records that the bad children had a rod loft for their correction. This is a sophisticated age. Very little credulity c f a poetic kind remains in us. But the instinct to make merry and throw aside the cares of everyday life is still in us, and until that is gone Christmas will remain. By and by it may come to mean that all the world shall be made glad, not only for a day, but for tlio entire year of days. The glories of Christmas half a century ago would no doubt seem poor and cheap to this generation, for life was simple, and devoid of show and glitter. The cxc-hango of costly gifts was not so common as in this generation.