if Santa isn't a real person how do they know how he looks like?

Question

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Answer 1

Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Santy, Jolly Old Elf, Santa Klaus or simply Santa, is a gift-giving figure in various cultures who distributes presents to children and adults, traditionally during the night of December 24, Christmas Eve, while everyone is sleeping. The popular American form Santa Claus originated as a mispronunciation of Dutch Sinterklaas, which is a contracted form of Sint Nicolaas (Saint Nicholas).

How he became the way he is now?
On Christmas Eve of 1822, another New Yorker, Clement Clarke Moore, wrote down and read to his children a series of verses; his poem was published a year later as "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" (more commonly known today by its opening line, "'Twas the night before Christmas . . ."). Moore gave St. Nick eight reindeer (and named them all), and he devised the now-familiar entrance by chimney. Moore's Nicholas was still a small figure, however — the poem describes a "miniature sleigh" with a "little old driver."

Meanwhile, in parts of Europe such as Germany, Nicholas the gift-giver had been superseded by a representation of the infant Jesus (the Christ child, or "Christkindlein"). The Christkindlein accompanied Nicholas-like figures with other names (such as "Père Noël" in France), or he travelled with a dwarf-like helper (known in some places as "Pelznickel," or Nicholas with furs). Belsnickle (as Pelznickel was known in the German-American dialect of Pennsylvania) was represented by adults who dressed in furry disguises (including false whiskers), visited while children were still awake, and put on a scary performance. Gifts found by children the next morning were credited to Christkindlein, who had come while everyone was asleep. Over time, the non-visible Christkindlein (whose name mutated into "Kriss Kringle") was overshadowed by the visible Belsnickle, and both of them became confused with St. Nicholas and the emerging figure of Santa Claus.

The modern Santa Claus derived from these two images: St. Nicholas the elf-like gift bringer described by Moore, and a friendlier "Kriss Kringle" amalgam of the Christkindlein and Pelznickel figures. The man-sized version of Santa became the dominant image around 1841, when a Philadelphia merchant named J.W. Parkinson hired a man to dress in "Criscringle" clothing and climb the chimney outside his shop.

In 1863, a caricaturist for Harper's Weekly named Thomas Nast began developing his own image of Santa. Nast gave his figure a "flowing set of whiskers" and dressed him "all in fur, from his head to his foot." Nast's 1866 montage entitled "Santa Claus and His Works" established Santa as a maker of toys; an 1869 book of the same name collected new Nast drawings with a poem by George P. Webster that identified the North Pole as Santa's home. Although Nast never settled on one size for his Santa figures (they ranged from elf-like to man-sized), his 1881 "Merry Old Santa Claus" drawing is quite close to the modern-day image.

The Santa Claus figure, although not yet standardized, was ubiquitous by the late 19th century. Santa was portrayed as both large and small; he was usually round but sometimes of normal or slight build; and he dressed in furs (like Belsnickle) or cloth suits of red, blue, green, or purple. A Boston printer named Louis Prang introduced the English custom of Christmas cards to America, and in 1885 he issued a card featuring a red-suited Santa. The chubby Santa with a red suit (like an "overweight superhero") began to replace the fur-dressed Belsnickle image and the multicolored Santas.

Answer 2

Martha P. gave a pretty good run-down, though I'd like to differ on a couple of points. The red-and-white outfit Santa wears derives from the ecclesiastical garments worn by Bishop Nicholas of Myra, the Saint Nicholas of later legend. In Greek Orthodox tradition, he would have had a beard, and it would have turned white as he grow older.

Clement Clarke Moore didn't invent the chimney entrance of St. Nick; that comes from Lapp tradition, as do the flying reindeer. During winter in the Arctic Circle, the snow is so deep that the only way in and out of the Lapps traditional home, the yurt, is through the smoke-hole in the roof.

As for Moore decribing St. Nick as 'small', my interpretation of that section is that he's decribing the view from a distance, so that the sleigh would to be 'miniature' because it's far away.

I would like to again recommend a very well-researched film that was made for the Edinburgh Film Festival about 25 years ago. It's called 'The Curious Case of Santa Claus', and features James Coco as Santa and Jon Pertwee as the psychiatrist he visits. It's still available (now on DVD) from Rel Records (www.relrecords.com). It costs L9.99 plus shipping from Scotland.

Answer 3

Well what i learned is that long time ago there use to be these 3 men that use to put gifts into peoples houses and over the years since they did not find him they made a fat man with a bread and it was santa

Answer 4

the image of Santa as we are most familiar with came from the cartoonist Thomas Nast who was working for the Saturday Evening Post and made a drawing of Santa similar to the one we know today.

Answer 5

Some people have the wildest imaginations in the world. Think about it, we know what Sponge-bob Square-pants looks like, but he isn't real.

Answer 6

Read Moiraes Fate comments on this page.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AighuVbpR6tAC5OYyzBmI0_sy6IX?qid=20061130154252AAOsiz4&show=7#profile-info-844f2a91b20813c7933e271486ed2340aa

Answer 7

We don't know how Satan looks, and that is the problem he can enter your live without you knowing. Screw with your mind so you screw your own live up, it all has to do how strongly you believe in God. Because if you do believe strongly, you will be able to with stand him and his words.

Answer 8

Because I know him and that's what he looks like.

Answer 9

because they probroly made from what he looks like years ago and still uses that look

Answer 10

and how did it spread worldwide?