While Santa Claus may have made his first chimney descent in the 1820s in Manhattan, this never-fading Christmas Superstar has spent centuries putting his legendary act together.
It began when he sprung to life as “Der Nyemands” (“Mr. Nobody”) for 16th-century German and Dutch children. With the addition of the “Ho, Ho, Ho!,” and a sleighbell-tubby image coming later, Father Christmas truly represents an evolutionary international project that combines Scandinavian “North Pole” traditions with English Elizabethan mummers.
Santa is a she?
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