Santa Claus is in a sense native to New York City. If you’re willing to accept “St. A Claus,” he made his first known written appearance in the New-York Gazette in 1773. If not, there’s a “Santaclaus” in 1808 in Salmagundi (the humor magazine co-edited by author Washington Irving that also introduced “Gotham” as a nickname for the city), a “Santa-Claus” in several papers in March 1809 and finally a two-word, no-hyphen “Santa Claus” in the New York Public Advertiser in April 1809.

After 13 more years of public experimentation in New York with the character also referred to as Sancte Claus, Sainte Claus, Santa-Closs, Sante Claws, Santaclaw, Santa Clause, Sanctus Klaas, St Class, Saincte Claus, Sante Claus and St. Nicholas, a poem published anonymously 200 years ago this week in the upstate Troy Sentinel, and later claimed by Manhattanite Clement Clarke Moore, established most of the traits of the rosy-cheeked, cherry-nosed, jelly-bellied gift-giver with a reindeer-drawn sleigh who was to conquer the world.

QOSHE - A Christmas Tale From Long Ago: Santa Claus Was Black - Justin Fox
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A Christmas Tale From Long Ago: Santa Claus Was Black

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23.12.2023

Santa Claus is in a sense native to New York City. If you’re willing to accept “St. A Claus,” he made his first known written appearance in the New-York Gazette in 1773. If not, there’s a “Santaclaus” in 1808 in Salmagundi (the humor magazine........

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