Image via Wikipedia
While the earliest roots of the Santa Claus mythology likely trace back to European pagan traditions co-opted and combined with the story of the Christian bishop Nicholas of Myra, as we noted on Tuesday, the modern American conception of Santa Claus has its origins in politics. Stephen Heller of AIGA writes:
Santa did not become the universal Claus until 1863, when the American political cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the Democrat donkey and Republican elephant, rendered the quintessential Christmas icon in pen and ink.
The Bavarian-born Nast originated this archetype while working for New York’s Harper’s Weekly
in an attempt to spiritually uplift Union Army soldiers and their
families who made sacrifices during the darkest days of the bloody
Civil War.
Nast’s iconic illustration is pictured above.You can read the rest of Heller’s article here.
