Description
Before he was round, Santa Claus was slim. He has been pictured as a giant or as an elf. St. Nicholas could also be glimpsed in robes of green, yellow, purple or black.
Some have viewed him as a saint. Others know him as a gift-giver with a sinister sidekick, Black Peter.
All this and much more is revealed in Agatha Gilmore's lively collection of antique Christmas cards from around the world.
Minister Clement Moore delighted children of all ages with his poem that guaranteed Santa's swift completion of his Christmas Eve rounds via a sleigh powered by flying reindeer. But old Christmas cards also show St. Nick riding a donkey or a polar bear, peddling a bike or gliding on snowshoes.
The pictorial evidence on old Christmas cards of Santa's complicated past is intelligently interpreted here by a Santa scholar with a fine sense of whimsy.