Santa Claus SVG is a Christmas grandfather, a Western European and North American fairytale (folklore) character who gives gifts to children for Christmas.
There is no consensus on whether Lapland or the immediate vicinity of the North Pole should be considered home to Santa Claus.
Origin of Santa Claus SVG
The prototype of Santa Claus SVG is the Christian Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker (Santa – “saint”, Claus – “Nicholas”), known for his charity – help in the form of secret gifts to poor people with children. Initially on December 6, the day of St. Nicholas according to the church calendar, it was accepted to give gifts to children in Europe on his behalf. However, during the Reformation, when the reverence of the saints was not approved, in Germany and neighboring countries the character who distributes gifts became the child Christ, and the day of their presentation was moved from 6 to 24 December, that is, during the Christmas fairs. During the Counter-Reformation, gifts for the children were again given on behalf of St. Nicholas, but now it was already at the end of December, at Christmas. But in some European countries older traditions still remain in force. Thus, in the Netherlands, where the name of St. Nicholas is pronounced as Sintaclaas, the kids can receive gifts on his behalf on December 5 and Christmas.
It was thanks to the Dutch colonists who founded the settlement of New Amsterdam in the 1650s, which has now become the city of New York, that the image of St. Nicholas came to the North American continent. It should be noted that the British puritans, who mastered North America, did not celebrate Christmas.
In 1809, the “History of New York” of the American writer Washington Irving, in which he spoke about the times of Dutch rule, mentioning the custom of honoring St. Nicholas in New Amsterdam.
In 1822, a teacher of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia University, Clement Clark Moore composed for his children a poetic Christmas fairy tale tale about Santa Claus – a fairytale character who gives gifts to children. On the eve of Christmas in 1823, the poem was published in the newspaper Sentinel entitled “Night before Christmas, or visit of St. Nicholas. The poem became very popular and was reprinted in 1844. In the documentary program “Legends of Santa”, published in the 2000s on the American television channel History Channel, stated: “Thanks to the feather Clement Moore St. Nicholas has become a Santa Claus” and “by 1840, almost all Americans knew who Santa Claus is. Clement Moore gave us this funny old man. In the same poem for the first time were mentioned eight of the classic nine deer of Santa Claus.
In 1863, the famous American artist Thomas Nast, who worked in Harper’s Weekly magazine, used the character of Santa Claus SVG, drawn on the motifs of the book by Clement Clark Moore, in a series of his political cartoons – in the form of a hero who gives gifts. The character gained popularity, and later Nast produced many funny drawings for children with funny scenes from the life of Santa Claus in Harper Weekly Magazine and other publications. In his drawings Nast invented and painted in detail the life of Santa.
The artist mentioned for the first time that Santa lives at the North Pole and keeps a special book, where he writes good and bad deeds of children. According to Nasta’s drawings, one can trace the gradual transformation of Santa’s appearance: from a fat elderly elf in a fur suit to a more realistic and cheerful character in a fur coat. As pointed out by the TV channel History Channel, “Nast drew Santa Claus with himself. The artist was a well-nourished man of small stature, with a large mustache and a wide beard.
It should be noted that initially the Santa’s coat in the drawings of Nasta was brown, but almost immediately, in the process of release of new drawings, began to acquire a reddish hue. The red color of Santa’s coat does not carry any semantic load, – notes History Channel in his study of “Legends of Santa”.
In 1931, the company “Coca-Cola” launched an advertising campaign to increase sales of soft drinks in winter. At the same time, it offered a more modern look of Santa, designed by Haddon Sandblom. It is this painter who is credited with creating the image of the charming Santa Claus SVG, recognizable and very popular all over the world. His images were the most successful of those previously presented by many artists under the influence of a poem by Clement Clarke Moore and drawings by Thomas Nast.
Santa’s costume, as interpreted by Sandblom, was red, with a white fur edge. But the priority in the use of such a combination of colors in the clothes of a fairytale character does not belong to the company “Coca-Cola”: much earlier, Santa, dressed in this way, appeared on several covers of the humorous magazine “Puck” (1902, 1904 and 1905) and on posters advertising drinks company White Rock Beverages (1915 and 1920-ies).