By: Dr. Elizabeth Hoole McArthur
By Christmas of 1862, the Civil War had been raging for a year and a half. Dreadful battles—brother against brother—had already been fought: First and Second Manassas/Bull Run, Forts Henry and Donelson, Pittsburg Landing/Shiloh, the Peninsula Campaign, Seven Days Battles, Harpers Ferry, Sharpsburg/Antietam, Fredericksburg, and more. It had already been a long and tragic war, with thousands of casualties on both sides. And there was no end in sight.
Yet, even in the midst of this misery, there was still a longing for some glimmer of hope, a desire for some small measure of merriment at the Yuletide season. Amazingly, from this sad Christmas of 1862 came the picture of one of the best-loved, kindest, most generous characters of all time: Santa Claus.
The image of Santa Claus was the creation of a young artist named Thomas Nast. The kindly old gentleman debuted in two of Nast’s drawings published in the popular New York–based news magazine Harper’s Weekly. Both drawings were created to give expression to the heartfelt emotions of the wartime Christmas season. But they both also carried a strong political message.
Nast, a staunch abolitionist and fierce Union supporter, used his platform at Harper’s Weekly to promote his views through powerful caricatures and illustrations. Even his two Christmas 1862 drawings featuring Santa Claus reinforced the Union cause.
The first, “Christmas Eve, 1862,” memorializes the sacrifices of Union families. The despondency and heartache are unmistakable. On the left, a wife kneels in earnest prayer late on Christmas Eve, gazing in sadness at the moonlit night, her children asleep nearby. A portrait of her soldier husband hangs on the wall. On the right, her husband sits with his rifle beside a lonely campfire on a cold winter night, snow falling around him. He clutches photographs of the family he deeply loves and misses.
Surrounding these scenes are several smaller vignettes. In the upper left, Santa Claus crawls into a chimney, his reindeer on the roof; and in the upper right, Santa sits in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. At the bottom are reminders that the cruel war continues unabated on land and on sea. On the left, soldiers march through snow; on the right, ships battle the sea; and in the center, are the graves of fallen soldiers.
Nast's "Santa Claus in Camp"
1862 | LOC
The second drawing, “Santa Claus in Camp,” appeared on the cover of the same Harper’s Weekly issue. It was intended to give families and children in the war-weary country a brief respite from the horrors of the battlefields and offer them a message of hope, that good and peace eventually would triumph. Santa has moved from the periphery of the picture to the center of action. He appears as a benevolent figure with a long white beard visiting a Union camp. He is dressed in a fur-trimmed suit of stars and stripes. A sign in the background, beside the Union flag and near the soldiers’ tents, reads “Welcome Santa Claus.” He is sitting on his sleigh pulled by reindeer, handing out gifts to children and soldiers. One lucky soldier has received warm socks, one of the most prized gifts for fighting men during the war. Above and outside the scene, the letters “U” and “S” prominently appear, stressing loyalty to the Union cause.
While Nast is sometimes credited with inventing the popular image of Santa Claus, his inspiration came largely from Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” now known as “The Night Before Christmas.”
Nast not only captured the spirit of Moore’s poem but expanded it. It was Nast who fashioned Santa’s toy workshop at the North Pole, introduced the tradition of mailing letters to him, and added the iconic naughty-and-nice list. He also tied contemporary toys like toy soldiers, jack-in-the-boxes, dolls, and wooden animals to the holiday imagery. While Nast may not have “invented” the image of Santa Claus, his artistry certainly brought it to life.
Santa Claus is a gift from the folklore of the centuries, the pen of Clement Clarke Moore, and the artistry of Thomas Nast.
