Christmas season is here! With the many Christmas traditions, we are familiar with, one of the most notable and important ones is Santa Claus. Santa Claus has seemed to be a Christmas staple since the dawn of time, but when did this legend start? The answer will show itself to be a vague yet remarkably interesting history.

Santa, like much folklore, is hard to trace his origins to one person or thing. But out of the many various things he is drawn from, the figure who is most notable in his development is Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century Christian saint. Legend began to form around him, as was common with Christian saints from the time, especially with his alleged habit of secret gift giving. This legend gave way to a Dutch tradition of celebrating a character named Sinterklaas. It is thought that this legend made its way to New York City in the late 1700’s. From there, it slowly began to develop into what we know today.

The first drawing that shows the modern Santa Claus, was made in 1863 by cartoonist, Thomas Nast, displaying someone with a big white beard, red clothes, and a big belly. This was later developed by marketing from Coca Cola in the 1930’s.

From then on, Santa would develop more, but, for the last century or so, Santa has been the jolly figure we know today!