LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Santa Claus
built 615 days ago
Years of research confirmed that initial doubt: Santa Claus is an Americanization, all right, but not of a Catholic Saint. . . Despite a century of repetition, this story is simply untrue. . . (Siefker, Phyllis. Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1997, pp. 5,7)
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Santa Claus is the mythical figure who delivers toys to children around the world each year on Christmas Eve. According to legend, Santa lives at the North Pole and oversees a toy workshop run by busy elves. Each December 24th, on the eve of the celebration of the birth of Jesus, Santa is said to fly around the world delivering his toys in a sled pulled by eight reindeer: Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder (or Donner), Prancer, and Vixen. (A ninth reindeer with a shiny nose, Rudolph, was introduced in Gene Autry's 1949 country music hit "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.") The name Santa Claus was derived from Sinterklaas, the Dutch term for the ancient Christian figure of Saint Nicholas.
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A survey conducted by mall operator General Growth Properties found that 91 % of the people who represent Santa Claus have real white beards and round bellies. Nearly three out of five (59%) have college or graduate degrees, and 54% use computers on a regular basis. Despite the preponderance of real round bellies, 89% are health conscious and exercise regularly. But not all is well. Only 20% are multi-lingual, and 26% can communicate in sign language. The average Santa has almost 10 years experience.
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Today, at the Santa Claus village, Santa has his own building with his personal office and reception. By the way, Santa has brought a small collection of his many big books from Korvatunturi. The books may be admired in the shelves, but visitors cannot peek at the contents. That right is only reserved for Santa Claus and his elves.
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Every year, the Santa Claus Lane committee comprised of Chamber members chooses the landmarks to be designed on the 3 1/2 inch circular resin ornament. The artist sketches the layout from photos provided by Chamber officials and a prototype is created. Once the prototype is approved, work begins with the process of pouring each piece and then hand-painting them. The ornaments arrive in Olean, individually boxed, numbered, and include a brief description. The description is “The Olean Post Office, constructed in 1910-12, is architecturally significant as a distinguished example of early twentieth-century public architecture in New York State. Designed under the direction of James Knox Taylor, the building represents an era when post office buildings were individually designed and when attempts were made to integrate these buildings with the surrounding architecture.
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The American version of the Santa Claus figure received its inspiration and its name from the Dutch legend of Sinter Klaas, brought by settlers to New York in the 17th century. As early as 1773 the name appeared in the American press as "St. A Claus," but it was the popular author Washington Irving who gave Americans their first detailed information about the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. In his History of New York, published in 1809 under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, Irving described the arrival of the saint on horseback (unaccompanied by Black Peter) each Eve of Saint Nicholas. This Dutch-American Saint Nick achieved his fully Americanized form in 1823 in the poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas—more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas—by writer Clement Clarke Moore. Moore included such details as the names of the reindeer; Santa Claus's laughs, winks, and nods; and the method by which Saint Nicholas, referred to as an elf, returns up the chimney.
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