After 100 years, an old photo of Santa Claus on a busy Chicago street still packs the wallop of a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past! This Santa isn't fat; he's thin as a rail and he's holding up a sign begging people to "Help ... Send Santa Claus Down 10,000 Chimneys for Chicago's Poor People." He's raising funds to feed hungry families.
That 1902 Chicago Daily News photo has now moved into the public domain through the Chicago Historical Society -- just in time to see that powerful old image of Santa as a public advocate fading from American memory.
Why have we forgotten that kind of Santa who spent more time jingling our consciences than his own sleigh bells? It's quite an irony in early December, when millions of Christians around the world will celebrate the Dec. 6 feast of the "real" St. Nicholas. You can't read much about this major figure in Christmas tradition without thinking about the plight of the poor, the marginalized and all those who are at risk.
The night-and-day contrast slaps us like sleet. As we all rush toward Christmas 2010, full of hopes and fears about the future of the world -- and our own households -- the only Santas we see are the jolly Coca-Cola-style guys who sell toys on television and leap onto the stage at Radio City Music Hall to host the Rockettes' holiday show. Those Santas' eyes twinkle with the glee of gobbling up whatever disposable income is left in the land.
Charles Dickens got it right. Dickens was a passionate advocate for the poor and his Santa-like second ghost in A Christmas Carol nearly deafens us with his jovial laughter -- until he reaches the punchline of his visit to Scrooge's world. How many of us, as children, shivered in front of our TV screens when that jolly Father Christmas opens his furry robes and shows Scrooge two starving children huddled around his knees.
Who are these two children? Father Christmas thunders at Scrooge: "This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."
Wow! That's such a sock to the solar plexus that it helps to keep the Christmas Carol roller coaster rumbling along each year. New versions of Dickens' stories (including new DVD versions of several different "Christmas Carol" productions) are among the precious few reminders of St. Nick's earlier message.
That Santa consciousness made a whole lot of sense to Americans through the Progressive Era, when that 1902 long-tall Santa Claus drummed up donations on a Chicago street corner.
By the flush 1950s, though, it all began to seem a little silly. America was booming! In 1951, Bob Hope starred in a famous lampoon of fund-raising Santas, "The Lemon Drop Kid." Hope played a scoundrel mixed up with dangerous mobsters, who prompt him to organize a huge holiday con game, sending fake Santas across New York City to steal thousands of dollars in Christmas donations. Of course, hard hearts soften by the end of that comedy, but in Bob Hope's satire the old Santa as a social conscience seem as stodgy as an off-key Salvation Army band.
In the end, that's what bothers me about the nostalgic strain of Santa that flows from the original Miracle on 34th Street through the thunder of the Polar Express. That warm-and-fuzzy version of Santa is all about trying to "believe" despite all evidence to the contrary about Christmas culture.
The real question is: Believe what? In Disney magic? In the hope that every kid will get a gift this Christmas? That someone will sprinkle pixie dust and maybe, even though we're losing our jobs and maybe our homes, there's a jolly old elf who'll whisk us away for a few precious moments in a better place?
Well, I do still believe, despite all evidence of the world's hard heart. And, for Christmas 2010, I'm hanging a photo of that 1902 Chicago Santa by the mantle with care -- in hopes that a new conscience soon will be there.
Follow David Crumm on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DavidCrumm
Saint Nicholas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
How to Celebrate Saint Nicholas Day | eHow.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_Santa_Claus_1902.jpg
Anyway, I liked the Crumm article. For several years my siblings and I have not exchanged presents at Christmas (we all have housefuls of s.t.u.f.f.) and instead give in each other's honor to various good causes that promote the true spirit of Christmas, for the savior came to the poor and "those of low estate" as the Gospel says, and if there is any one time of year we should be conscious of that, it is in this "season of giving." Will Wall Street ever grow a conscience? Will Retail ever say, don't spend your money here, put in the collection box for the needy? Don't hold your breath. Still, you can make a difference if you try.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39QomPEL3jQ&feature=related St Nicholaus has to conquer wall st like christians conquered the Roman empire but didnt improve it much
like Congress and financial reform
perhaps new age is st nicholas maybe NGOs etc the real meaning must be the need to end poverty and suffering so even st nicholas is not needed
sighns in the heavens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2M8NWjcBQo&feature=related
embodiment of Karunavataram , incarnation of compassion.
on the lighter side : St Nicolas day is the day when taxpayers give to themselves ;Taxes are the only trickle down says St Nader
gold coins , gave St Nicholas not to wall st; not aristocrats but dragons wallst are, fools dont feed dragons spending is trickle up
unless its spend on local local local ; boycott big corp , all prophets of the ancient lands
spending ,says the president of the peasants , by americans trickles down upon peasants in China
college says the president of aristocrats , is the stepping stone from peasant to aristocrat
the secret message from st nicky [not revealed by wickedleaks] is when compassion and generosity is in th emajority when capitalism as usury and exploitation ends , then i'll rest easy up here
the fountain of truth youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2udaWJUbvKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjSAn7piFIk
st Nikolaus and the pagans pagans as we all know is the cure for ADHDhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0_uqJFjtqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzg_8RzjQXA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWcRnmDvLlI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guT8yG-r25c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g813_zAF6SI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyec_UDaQmQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHFUvV9kbeo&playnext=1&list=PLE052F2C9EC7E1EE6&index=22
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjeMPJfcHs0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMosPi9izKo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1TqGVL3JcM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3bwgMdGshA&feature=related
yes. St. Nicholas gave food and clothing to the needy children of his time. somehow, that spirit today is expressed in the process of spending exorbitant amounts, beyond your means, to give expensive gifts to people just so that you can get expensive gifts from them in return.
I agree with you.
My legal name is Santa Claus, and I'm a full-time volunteer advocate for the 2 million children in the U.S. annually who are abused, neglected, exploited, abandoned, homeless, and institutionalized through no fault of their own.
I'm also a consecrated Bishop and Monk, as St, Nicholas was many centuries ago, and believe that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ, not the crass, commercial, secular spectacle it has become in many places, and that the greatest gift one can give is love, not presents.
I pray that parents and guardians will elect this year to volunteer at a soup kitchen for the poor and homeless, bringing their own children along to witness poverty and compassion, and/or donate, in their child's name, to an established local charity providing for the health, welfare, and safety of vulnerable children in need.
Blessings to all, Santa Claus
commandment. Our Father sent us enimity through Jesus the Christ, the only begotten of the
Father in the flesh, and Jesus is the greatest gift of all time.
there are those in the educational field who state that in our zeal to raise women to the equal status of men, and rightly so, we have forgotten not the little girls, but the boys.