Before the 1800s Christmas was a mostly religious celebration. Then in 1823, Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was published.
That was followed in 1843 by Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” and in 1863 Thomas Nast’s iconic image of St Nicholas or Santa Claus first appeared.
Now popularly known as “The Night Before Christmas,” Moore’s poem popularized the notion that it was on Christmas Eve that St. Nicholas traveled on a sleigh pulled by reindeer and came down the chimney delivering gifts. Its popularity grew in the 1830s, but the earliest publication I have seen in Mississippi was in the Woodville Republican on Dec. 23, 1851, under the heading of “A Happy Christmas to All!”
Regional newspaper views of Christmas often took from or made parodies of Moore’s poem. An 1866 advertisement by Rueff’s in the Oxford Falcon advised that stockings should be well stuffed so children could find what all “the good man Santa Claus” had placed in their stockings after coming down the chimney on Christmas Eve. And, of course, Rueff’s Store had all that Santa needed to buy.
Advertising parodies of the poem quickly became popular and remain so. Divelbiss’ Bookstore in Columbus found “The Night Before Christmas” to make good advertising copy and published in the Dec. 11, 1921, Columbus Dispatch:
“Twas the night before Christmas and all through the store
the book shelves were empty from ceiling to floor
with a smile on his face lay the dealer in bed
as he thought of the joy all his books were to spread
Spread Joy by making this a book Christmas
and get them at Divelbiss.”
By the mid-1800s the celebration of Christmas was beginning to resemble that of the present day, and in 1863 Santa Claus also took on his modern appearance. Prior to Thomas Nast’s image of Santa being published in Jan. 3, 1863, there was no set image of St. Nicholas or Santa Clause in use. He might be skinny, or he might be fat. He could have a red suit, or it could be green.
The jolly fat man with a white beard and a red suit was created and popularized by Nast’s yearly illustrations between 1863 and 1886. In the beginning, though, it wasn’t always toys and children that made Santa smile in those first images. In Nast’s first illustration, Santa is handing out presents to Union soldiers while holding a Jefferson Davis figure with a noose around his neck.
Thomas Nast was a war correspondent/illustrator for Harper’s Weekly during the Civil War and strongly pro-Union. He found that his Santa Claus illustrations were very useful in promoting patriotism and sympathy for the Union. President Lincoln is even reported to have commented, “Thomas Nast has been our best recruiting sergeant. His emblematic cartoons have never failed to arouse enthusiasm and patriotism and have always seemed to come just when these articles were getting scarce.”
Nast’s last Santa shot at the Confederate leadership came in his double page spread “Merry Christmas To All” in the Dec. 30, 1865, Harper’s Weekly. (Remember the 12 days of Christmas are the 12 days after Christmas.) In that illustration the heads of Lee and other Confederate generals are pictured on a stage floor around the feet of “Ulysses the Giant Killer.”
An editorial in that issue of Harper’s concluded with a Christmas message: “The festival commemorates the birth of Him who died for all men, and thereby proclaimed and sealed their common humanity. And if the Christmas light could show the late enemies of the United States that peace is born only of good will to men, we should all gladly join hands from sea to sea and raise our voice in one vast millennial chorus, the jubilant thunder of which would break all political, social, moral, and mental chains in the world. ‘Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to men.'”
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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