The Santa Claus blog
His age, his home, Mrs. Claus: the questions children ask, answered from the archives.
Sourced, dated, checked
Santa's secretsMrs. Claus turns up in an 1849 short story and finds her voice in an 1889 poem. Her name, her job and the baby question, checked against the old texts.
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Santa's secretsChristmas Eve does not last one night. From one side of the planet to the other, it stretches over more than thirty hours, and since 1955 North American air defense crews have followed the sleigh minute by minute. Here is how the route comes together.
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Santa's secretsSanta has kept a ledger since at least 1866, Saint Nicholas carries a big red book, and a 1934 song made the list famous. How Santa knows who's been good, document by document.
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Santa's secretsCounting from Saint Nicholas, born around 270 AD, Santa is more than 1,750 years old. That number has a source, and his birthday is not December 25.
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Santa's secretsIn 1823 a poem described Santa as a “jolly old elf” small enough for a miniature sleigh. What the word meant, how he grew up from there, and why he ended up surrounded by elves.
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Santa's secretsDasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen from the 1823 poem, Rudolph out in front since 1939, and Blizzard in the village stable. Donder or Donner? Blitzen or Blixem? The meaning of every name, and how it is said in other languages.
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Santa's secretsBy the morning of December 25 the route is done, but the North Pole doesn't close. Mail, reindeer calves, a summer congress in Denmark: here is Santa's schedule, month by month.
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Santa's secretsA finger beside his nose to rise up the chimney, reindeer that fly one night a year, a mantle of immortality: Santa's powers were written down, and we know the dates.
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Santa's secretsA glass of milk and cookies, a mince pie and a drop of sherry, a carrot for the reindeer, hay in a shoe: what children leave out for Santa around the world, and since when.
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Santa's secretsThe North Pole comes from an 1866 magazine drawing, Lapland from a 1927 radio show, Greenland from a 1989 Danish TV series. Each of Santa's addresses has a date and an author.
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Santa's secretsThey show up in a New York magazine in 1857, move into Thomas Nast's workshop in 1866 and answer children's mail in Canada and France today. A portrait of Santa's elves, job by job.
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Four shelves, kept by the archivist