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Who Is Santa Claus?: The True Story Behind a Living Legend
The history of Saint Nicholas, illuminated with illustrations by Margaret Nisbet. The book followed the production of the popular film, "The Curious Case of Santa Claus."
104 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 3, 2020
Very interesting and well-written, overall. It sometimes goes a little far into background information, has some outdated language (Vikings 'discovered' the Americas), and strangely provides a scientific explanation for one of the many 'miracles' mentioned but leaves the rest unexplained. Nisbet's illustrations are great. I'd like to watch the Channel Four documentary it accompanied.
December 12, 2011
I started out really enjoying this book. Learning about the real man St. Nicholas, followed by crazy stories about Northern Siberian reindeer tribes with hallucinogenic mushroom eating Shaman who travel up and down the chimney smoke on their magical reindeer to commune with the spirits of the dead all seemed quite fascinating at first. But the ending of the book got so random and convoluted I started to wonder if the author really even knew what he was talking about, or if he just made all this up.
Really though I was frustrated with how on the first page of the book the author talks about how weird all this Santa Claus stuff is and what does it all have to do with 3 Wiseman and a baby in a stable? So he spent the whole book talking about how St. Nicholas became Santa Claus and where all that came from, but never said what any of it has to do with the birthday of Jesus. I still want to know why we all celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25, and the whole Santa Claus thing then too, when St. Nicolas's birthday was Dec. 6th or something. The book just abruptly ended out of the blue without wrapping things up or giving all the info it promised.
So basically this book only gets 2 stars because the author never provided the info he promised on the first page. The whole thing is actually kind of ruining my Christmas this year too because it's kind of discouraging to see how Santa has just become this huge commercialized money making scam!
Really though I was frustrated with how on the first page of the book the author talks about how weird all this Santa Claus stuff is and what does it all have to do with 3 Wiseman and a baby in a stable? So he spent the whole book talking about how St. Nicholas became Santa Claus and where all that came from, but never said what any of it has to do with the birthday of Jesus. I still want to know why we all celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25, and the whole Santa Claus thing then too, when St. Nicolas's birthday was Dec. 6th or something. The book just abruptly ended out of the blue without wrapping things up or giving all the info it promised.
So basically this book only gets 2 stars because the author never provided the info he promised on the first page. The whole thing is actually kind of ruining my Christmas this year too because it's kind of discouraging to see how Santa has just become this huge commercialized money making scam!
January 10, 2024
A SHORT HISTORICAL SURVEY OF ST. NICHOLAS BECOMING ‘SANTA CLAUS’
Author Robin Crichton wrote in the first chapter of this 1987 book, “it was as an adult I began to discover Christmas… while I was making a film in Turkey, I had discovered that St. Nicholas had been born there… this tidbit of knowledge sparked off the idea for another film---a quest to discover the truth about Santa Claus. I discovered that he is simply the youngest of a quite remarkable and highly international family. His relatives are scattered all over the world---there is Sinter Klaas in the Netherlands, Father Christmas in England, the Weihnachtsmann in Germany, San Nicola in Italy, the Jultomten Julnisse in Scandinavia, and Nikolai Chudovorits in Russia, to name but a few. But they all have one thing in common—they are all connected with a man called Nicholas who was born seventeen hundred years ago in what is now south-west Turkey.” (Pg. 14)
He reports, “In 325 A.D. Constantine decreed that the Christian Church should agree on a common creed. All the bishops were summoned to Nicaea… for what was to be the first general council of the Christian Church… the debate was long and often heated—so heated, in fact, that at one point, it is said, Nicholas lost his temper and punched a fellow bishop on the nose!” (Pg. 24-25)
He recounts, “According to the Dutch, Sinter Klaas… has a secretary and a little Moorish assistant called Black Peter (Zwart Piet)… Every year… Black Peter loads up the toys and presents, and they all set sail for the Netherlands… While Sinter Klaas listens to whispered confessions, Black Peter distributes small presents or, supposedly, the occasional reprimand… Black Peter has the job of dealing with the bad ones. If children have been naughty he should leave a switch instead of a present so that the parents can give them a beating. If they have been excessively bad he is supposed to carry them off in his sack.” (Pg. 51-53)
He notes, “Throughout Protestant Europe, St. Nicholas was secularized. In Holland, Sint Niklaas became the vernacular Sinter Klaas and while he kept the medieval garb of a bishop complete with mitre and crozier, he became a figure of fun---a folk character with no religious connotations.” (Pg. 76)
He states, “In 1852 [Santa] had a town named after him: a small community in Indiana which had been settled by German-speaking immigrants from Switzerland… it was agreed the town would be known as Santa Claus. In due course a post office was established and the little community continued, virtually unnoticed by the outside world, until during First World War letters addressed to Santa Claus started arriving. The Postmaster wrote replies and … the whole story was publicized … The number of children’s letters to Santa Claus increased so dramatically that the Postmaster simply could not cope… And today the tradition continues… Every letter gets answered---almost 15,000 every year, and in addition there are a further million letters mailed for individuals and companies who simply want the post mark. Of course everything in the town has the name Santa Claus. There’s a Santa Claus Cemetery, a Santa Claus Sheriff, a Santa Claus Boiler Company, and even a Santa Claus Fire Department, equipped with a tender called Rudolph with a large red light glowing on the ‘nose’ of its engine!” (Pg. 94-96)
This book will be of interest to those studying the history of Santa Claus.
Author Robin Crichton wrote in the first chapter of this 1987 book, “it was as an adult I began to discover Christmas… while I was making a film in Turkey, I had discovered that St. Nicholas had been born there… this tidbit of knowledge sparked off the idea for another film---a quest to discover the truth about Santa Claus. I discovered that he is simply the youngest of a quite remarkable and highly international family. His relatives are scattered all over the world---there is Sinter Klaas in the Netherlands, Father Christmas in England, the Weihnachtsmann in Germany, San Nicola in Italy, the Jultomten Julnisse in Scandinavia, and Nikolai Chudovorits in Russia, to name but a few. But they all have one thing in common—they are all connected with a man called Nicholas who was born seventeen hundred years ago in what is now south-west Turkey.” (Pg. 14)
He reports, “In 325 A.D. Constantine decreed that the Christian Church should agree on a common creed. All the bishops were summoned to Nicaea… for what was to be the first general council of the Christian Church… the debate was long and often heated—so heated, in fact, that at one point, it is said, Nicholas lost his temper and punched a fellow bishop on the nose!” (Pg. 24-25)
He recounts, “According to the Dutch, Sinter Klaas… has a secretary and a little Moorish assistant called Black Peter (Zwart Piet)… Every year… Black Peter loads up the toys and presents, and they all set sail for the Netherlands… While Sinter Klaas listens to whispered confessions, Black Peter distributes small presents or, supposedly, the occasional reprimand… Black Peter has the job of dealing with the bad ones. If children have been naughty he should leave a switch instead of a present so that the parents can give them a beating. If they have been excessively bad he is supposed to carry them off in his sack.” (Pg. 51-53)
He notes, “Throughout Protestant Europe, St. Nicholas was secularized. In Holland, Sint Niklaas became the vernacular Sinter Klaas and while he kept the medieval garb of a bishop complete with mitre and crozier, he became a figure of fun---a folk character with no religious connotations.” (Pg. 76)
He states, “In 1852 [Santa] had a town named after him: a small community in Indiana which had been settled by German-speaking immigrants from Switzerland… it was agreed the town would be known as Santa Claus. In due course a post office was established and the little community continued, virtually unnoticed by the outside world, until during First World War letters addressed to Santa Claus started arriving. The Postmaster wrote replies and … the whole story was publicized … The number of children’s letters to Santa Claus increased so dramatically that the Postmaster simply could not cope… And today the tradition continues… Every letter gets answered---almost 15,000 every year, and in addition there are a further million letters mailed for individuals and companies who simply want the post mark. Of course everything in the town has the name Santa Claus. There’s a Santa Claus Cemetery, a Santa Claus Sheriff, a Santa Claus Boiler Company, and even a Santa Claus Fire Department, equipped with a tender called Rudolph with a large red light glowing on the ‘nose’ of its engine!” (Pg. 94-96)
This book will be of interest to those studying the history of Santa Claus.
April 13, 2019
There is a lot of interesting information in this book about the stories and traditions and folklore surrounding our current day Santa Claus. I liked learning how other countries and cultures celebrate Christmas (or don’t) and what their Santa Clauses are each like. I love learning about other cultures and found those bits fascinating. For these tidbits I give 4 stars.
As far as the writing goes, however, it often feels disconnected and stilted. Sometimes I couldn’t quite follow the narrative as it moved to a different story or point of view. The ending is abrupt and doesn’t very well wrap up the entire book with conclusive thoughts or arguments. Nor is there any discussion about how Santa Claus specifically became associated with Christmas. I give the writing 2 stars, therefore rounding up to an overall 3.
As far as the writing goes, however, it often feels disconnected and stilted. Sometimes I couldn’t quite follow the narrative as it moved to a different story or point of view. The ending is abrupt and doesn’t very well wrap up the entire book with conclusive thoughts or arguments. Nor is there any discussion about how Santa Claus specifically became associated with Christmas. I give the writing 2 stars, therefore rounding up to an overall 3.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews