BACKGROUND As Santa leaves, mystery of his origin is revealed

Despite materialism, Santa has remained an age-old symbol of charity and joy.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
It has been a long journey for the chubby, bearded guy in the red and white suit. He has come and gone after wishing a "Merry Christmas to all," and leaving one to wonder just when he began his annual visits.
Transformed over time, Santa Claus evolved from a mystical horned god to a kind Turkish bishop to jolly Saint Nick to "Bad Santa."
The black comedy stars Billy Bob Thornton as a thieving, chain-smoking, whiskey-guzzling, sleazeball brought around to the true meaning of the season by a fat little boy.
In a way, Tinseltown's newest Santa has captured our conflicting views of him: Saint of American Materialism? Or age-old symbol of charity and joy?
It's the latter view that Santa expert Frank Riga, an English professor at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., prefers.
"He is . . . a way of putting together in one image a person who . . . becomes the promise of joy and fulfillment and joviality, generosity and kindness," Riga says. In other words, "all those wonderful qualities we should be celebrating more than we do."
According to Tony van Renterghem's book "When Santa Was a Shaman," the first Santa-like character was Herne/Pan, god of the hunt who is often depicted with reindeer-like horns. Riga says attributes of Santa also come from Wodan/Odin, a Germanic god of the wind or hunt. The strongest linkage is to St. Nicholas, a perhaps mythic fourth-century bishop in Myra, Turkey, who is said to have worked anonymous, miraculous acts of kindness and largess. St. Nicholas is considered, among other things, to be the patron saint of children. In Germany, St. Nicholas became known as Pelze Nicol, trading in his bishop's clothes for a fur coat and elfin hat. The Dutch referred to this same persona as Sinterklaas.
Well dressed
His outfit is said to have evolved from a bishop's frock to a long coat and tight pants or a green, fur-trimmed robe. In 1931, a Christmas advertisement for Coca-Cola drawn by Haddon Sundblom featured Santa in -- what else? -- a red suit trimmed with white fur. The Madison Avenue advertising gimmick stuck.
Riga says that in Washington Irving's 1809 "Knickerbocker History of New York," which recounted the Dutch colonization of New Amsterdam, Sinterklaas is described as holding a finger near his nose, probably in the universal ssshh-ing sign. In his poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," Clement C. Moore made it a magical mode of transportation that carried Santa up and down the chimney.
Mode of transportation
In Norse mythology, Wodan/Odin traveled on a gray or white horse with eight legs -- called Sleipnir or Schimmel, which was the fastest in the world. St. Nicholas rode a similar white steed, which was capable of flying over roofs. Sinterklaas traveled in a flying wagon pulled by a single horse. In 1821, the children's book A New Year's Present to the Little Ones, depicted Santa in a sleigh pulled by a single, magical reindeer, Riga says. Moore made it eight reindeer. And Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, added the most famous reindeer of all -- Rudolph -- in a song that debuted in 1949.
Santa grew larger through the years. At first there was the sprite-sized Herne; then the tall, regal St. Nicholas, and then the dwarfish Sinterklaas. Moore depicted him as jovially fat but still elfin in stature -- his poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" refers to the "miniature sleigh," after all. Nast gave Santa a dwarfish visage and put him in animal fur. Coca-Cola made him larger than life, in keeping with the munificence of the season, Riga says.
And for those who wonder why we hang stockings by the chimney, there is an explanation. In the Dutch tradition, St. Nicholas filled the shoes of good children. "From shoes to stockings is not a big move," says Riga.
The idea of a bottomless magic bag is a motif often found in legends and fairy tales in various cultures. "It's the same thing here," Riga says. "No matter how many toys Santa gives away, the bag is always full."