Santa Claus
Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, or simply "Santa" brings gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
The popular North American form Santa Claus originated as a mispronunciation of Dutch Sinterklaas, which in turn is a contracted form of Sint Nicolaas (Saint Nicholas).
The Dutch word for Santa Claus is Kerstman ("Christmas man"). Santa Claus has a suit that comes in many colors depending on the country.
St. Nicholas, was a 4th century Christian bishop of Myra in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor.
Germanic folklore
Germanic folklore contained stories about the god Odin (Wodan), who would each year, at Yule, have a great hunting party accompanied by his fellow gods and the fallen warriors residing in his realm. Children would place their boots, filled with carrots, straw or sugar, near the chimney for Odin’s flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir’s food with gifts or candy. This practice survived in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands after the adoption of Christianity and became associated with Saint Nicholas.
Children still place their straw filled shoes at the chimney every winter night, and Saint Nicholas rewards them with candy and gifts.
In Dutch folklore
Saint Nicolas has many parallels with the Germanic mythology. Saint Nicolas has many resemblances with Odin, like the beard, hat and spear (nowadays a staff) and the cloth bag held by the servants to capture naughty children. Both Saint Nicolas and Odin ride white horses that can fly through the air. The white eight-legged steed of Odin is named Sleipnir. The letters made of candy given by the Zwarte Pieten to the children are reminiscent of the fact that Odin ‘invented’ the rune letters. The poems made during the celebration and the songs the children sing has to do with the fact that Odin was the god of the arts of poetry.
Until the second world war Saint Nicolas was only helped by one servant. When the Canadians liberated the Netherlands in 1945, they reinstated the celebrations of Sinterklaas for the children. Unaware of the traditions, the Canadians thought that if one Zwarte Piet was fun, several Zwarte Pieten is even more fun. Ever since Saint Nicolas is helped by a group of Zwarte Pieten (helpers).
Modern origins – The Ghost of Christmas Present
A colorized version of the original illustration by John Leech made for Charles Dickens’s novel A Christmas Carol (1843). Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history and folklore merged with the British character Father Christmas to create the character known to Britons and Americans as Santa Claus. Father Christmas dates back at least as far as the 17th century in Britain, and pictures of him survive from that era, portraying him as a well-nourished bearded man dressed in a long, green, fur-lined robe. He typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, and was reflected in the "Ghost of Christmas Present" in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
The name Santa Claus is derived from Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for the character based on St. Nicholas. He is also known there by the name of Sint Nicolaas which explains the use of the two fairly dissimilar names Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas or St. Nick.
Santa Claus in popular culture
Santa parading with a Santa Christmas ornamentIn Poland, Santa Claus gives gifts on the 6th of December. On the Christmas Eve it is the Angel that brings presents, though. In Hungary, Santa Claus (Télapó or Mikulás) brings small gifts (usually candy and chocolate) during the night of the 6th of December and Little Jesus (Jézuska) brings the tree as well as the presents on Christmas Eve. Santa is often dressed up in red.
By the end of the century, the reality of mass mechanized production became more fully accepted by the Western public. That shift was reflected in the modern depiction of Santa’s residence a fully mechanized production and distribution facility, equipped with the latest manufacturing technology, and overseen by the elves with Santa and Mrs. Claus as executives and/or managers.
Santa’s main distribution center
At 4 million square feet, it’s one of the world’s largest facilities. A real-time warehouse management system is of course required to run such a complex. The facility makes extensive use of task interleaving, literally combining dozens of activities (putaway, replenishing, order picking, sleigh loading, cycle counting) in a dynamic queue the elves have been on engineered standards and incentives for three years.The transportation systems are fully integrated, allowing (the elves) to make optimal decisions that balance transportation and order picking. Unbeknownst to many, Santa is really magical and gets the job done every Christmas Eve.