This is St. Nicholas Day, a day when children in the Netherlands and across much of Northern Europe awake to find their stockings or shoes filled with candy, nuts, oranges, and small toys left behind in the night by the sanctified Bishop. It is also still observed in some American families, though the practice seems to be fading. Our three daughters always found their stockings filled until they were adults. It is also a good day to trot out Jolly Old St. Nicholas, America’s oldest secular Christmas song—if you discount Jingle Bells which was not intended to be linked to the holiday.
A
traditional Catholic Feast Day in
the West, it celebrates the day Nikolaos
of Myra, the Greek Bishop
of Myra in Asia Minor died in 346.
He is one of the most important Saints in the Orthodox tradition
as well and is venerated in Greece and especially in Russia
where he is the national patron.
But in the West Nicholas was revered as a patron of children and gradually morphed into the lanky,
bearded Bishop in a red miter or cowl doling out the goodies. In America he was ultimately transformed into Santa Claus with a workshop full of elves
at the North Pole, a jolly cookie baking wife, and a sleigh pulled
by flying reindeer. And he makes
his rounds on Christmas Eve, not on the Feast of St. Nicholas. Quite a transformation.
St. Nicholas came to North America with the Dutch
settlers of New York and the Hudson Valley. He was alien to the rest of the colonies, especially in New England which
frowned of Christmas and all things smacking of Bishops, Saints, and Popery.
By
the post-Revolutionary era he had
passed on to English residents of
New York. Washington Irving, who preserved the old Dutch folk tales—and made more than a few up himself—noted that at
some point prior to the 1820’s, St. Nicholas had shifted his gift giving to
Christmas in areas of the Hudson Valley.
In
1823 a newspaper in Troy,
New York published an anonymous poem
titled A Visit from St. Nicholas
that was later attributed to Clement
Clark Moore. Within years it was
being re-printed annually in
newspapers across the United States. In the poem, Moore invented many of the “traditions” associated with St.
Nicholas’s visit on Christmas Eve, including
his reindeer and sleigh transport and a physical
description of the jolly old elf
that strips him of his Bishop’s regalia, dresses him in fur, and transforms him from a tall, regal figure to a rotund, bearded little man.
This
new character was called Santa Claus,
derived from the Dutch Sinterklass
regionally, but remained better known as St. Nicholas through most of the
following century. Thomas Nast’s mid-century cartoons
helped define his appearance, including the fur
trimmed cap instead of the miter, top
hat, or cowl depicted in earlier illustrations. There was not much agreement on the color
of his outfit, which was often pictured as brown
fur trimmed in ermine or
as green or blue, until the spread of cheap
popular color lithography in
which artists used the bishop’s red of Europe because it showed up so
brilliantly.
Enter
Emily Huntington Miller who
submitted a poem called Lilly’s Secret to The
Little Corporal Magazine in December 1865, just as Nast’s drawings were
cementing the new vision of St. Nick
and a war weary nation was eager to
devote time and love to their families and children.
In
1867 John Piersol McCaskey, a school principal and former Mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania adapted Miller’s words with a few changes
to music. McCaskey included the song and
his songwriting claim in his 1881 book, Franklin Square Song Collection,
No. 1 and noted that it had previously been
published in 1874 in School Chimes, A New School Music Book
compiled by hymnist James Ramsey Murray. McCaskey, by the way, is a direct ancestor of the ownership of the Chicago Bears. Make of that
what you will.
By
the late 19th Century, the song was
a parlor piano sing-along favorite
and was a staple at the Christmas pageants
that were becoming a fixture in public
schools.
Haddon Sundblom solidified the now classic look of Santa Claus in scores of Coca-Cola ads from 1931 to '64 some of which are still used.
St.
Nicholas, St. Nick, and Santa Claus were all commonly used, with St. Nicholas
holding the edge until Santa Claus won out sometime around 1930 and popular magazine cover art and commercial art by the likes of Norman Rockwell in the Saturday
Evening Post and Haddon Sundblom
for Coca Cola firmly fixed the
modern image of the gift giver.
The
song has been recorded many times beginning with Edison cylinders and early RCA
discs. Among the more notable
versions were by Ray Smith in 1949, Chet Atkins in 1961, Eddy Arnold in 1962, The
Chipmunks in 1963, Andy Williams
in 1995, Anne Murray in 2001, and Carole King in 2017. Perhaps the most commonly heard version was
included in the Ray Conniff Singers 1963
album We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album released by the band in 1998.
But today we are going to
hear rock version by Chicago from their 1998 album Chicago XXV: The
Christmas Album which was reissued in 2019 by Rhino Records as What’s It Gonna Be, Santa. Rather surprisingly it was one of four holiday albums released by the group.
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