The story of Santa Klaus

by William S. Walsh

Santa Claus: “Whew! I suppose if I don’t remember those
poor boys in Wall Street they’ll complain to Teddy.”
Drawing by C. J. Taylor.

“Lo! what a strange thing! Before all the mantelpieces of Paris are ranged, with a wonderful symmetry, charming little shoes, pretty little bottines, miniature slippers, and, as the extremities of the faubourgs, poor little sabots! It will be asked, what all those tiny little boots and shoes are doing there? There are enough of them to cover the feet of all the inhabitants of the vast kingdom of Lilliput. What are they doing there? They are waiting for a beautiful little luminous hand to descend from heaven to fill them with preserved fruits and bonbons! In the olden time the presents intended for children were fastened to the two ends of the Yule Log. Later an attempt was made to introduce into France the Christmas tree, which, in a large portion of Europe, has superseded the Yule Log. But it is most usual to keep to the simple custom of filling the little shoes with bonbons, which more than one mother of the laboring classes has had the foresight to reserve for that purpose. We will not venture to say that, whilst the good mother or the elder sister is stealthily approaching the hearth and stooping down, one of the little sleepers, kept awake with expectation, does not open his eyelids slily, and say to himself: ‘Ah! I was sure it was not the little Jesus!’ But the prudent child will take care not to confess that he has discovered the mystery; he has too much interest in being cheated next Christmas day; and in a few hours the room will ring with his cries of false surprise but real gratification.”

Only candies and sweetmeats, you will see, were brought down through the chimney by the Christ-child on Christmas eve. The favorite time for gift-making from parent to child, from child to parent, from friend to friend, was on New Year’s Day. Hence that holiday is known as “Le Jour des Étrennes” (the day of presents), “étrennes” being a corruption of the Latin word “strenae,” the gifts exchanged during the Saturnalia, about which I have written in the fourth chapter of this book.

Though Saint Nicholas is honored as the patron of children in nearly all the Catholic countries of continental Europe, he is rarely associated in any way with Christmas. That day is there held sacred to the Christ-child alone. In a very few localities Saint Nicholas may appear on his own day to find out what good little boys and girls would like to have on Christmas, or, sometimes, at New Year’s, but it is generally the little Jesus who is the actual gift bringer.

In the Catholic portions of Austria and Germany all of the windows are lit up on the night of December 24 so as to enable Him to pick His way from house to house. Here you may again recognize a lingering memory of the Pagan and Jewish festivals wherein lighted torches, or lamps, or candles form a chief feature.

Santa Claus up in a balloon.
Copyright 1908 by Life Publishing Co.

And, indeed, one may point out right here that the Christ-child supplies another link with the old pagan Silenus. The latter, as I have told you, was, among other things, the guardian and tutor of the infant Bacchus. Whenever picture or statue represented him in this capacity all his evil traits were dropped. He became a very different being from the graceless reveller of the Bacchanalian feasts. He was now painted or carved as an old man, grave and sober, clean-cut in limbs and features, holding little Bacchus in his arms or on his shoulders. Possibly this figure may have suggested the mediæval legend of Saint Christopher, who, it is fabled, bore the Christ-child on his shoulders across a river in Germany.

In Italy almost every church has an altar dedicated to the Christ-child and decorated with a wooden or waxen effigy known as “Il Bambino,” or “the babe.” On Christmas day this Bambino is specially honored by being dressed up in his finest clothes and placed in a mimic cradle, called a presepio. All good Catholics flock to do the image honor during the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany.

The most famous Bambino in Italy is that in the Franciscan church of Ara Cœli at Rome, which is believed to heal the sick and perform other miracles. On Christmas day a curious ceremony is performed in his honor which makes our thoughts travel back to the Boy-bishop of old England and elsewhere. Opposite the presepio in which the little waxen figure reposes is built a palco, or platform, and on this platform a number of baby orators follow one another with little speeches, written by their elders, that dwell upon the birth of our Lord and the incidents of His childhood.