Santa Claus, Rudolph and other Christmas characters

It started out as the Holy Family, Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus in the Nativity scene. Then because angels announced the tidings of great joy, the heavenly messengers were added. The angels gave the news to the shepherds in the hills around Bethlehem. It followed that as the first to hear the good news, they were added as figures paying homage to the Christ Child. 

Of course, the shepherds brought gifts for the baby, like a white lamb, who felt right at home with the cows, donkeys and horses in the stable where the Savior was born. The presence of three kingly wise men from the East bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh completed the Christmas commemoration. Oh, and they came riding on camels. Hence, a camel or two joined the scene.

That was how St. Francis of Assisi imagined the First Christmas when he made the first public display of a creché in 1223 in a town in Italy. It was intended as a reminder of what Christmas is all about and the practice gained so much popularity that it has become common to find belens or other depictions of the Nativity Scene in homes and public places everywhere.

It is in this spirit of love and goodwill to all that Christmas became a happy time that has come to be associated with heartwarming stories with memorable characters that embody the message. These have been passed on to generations as folklore, written down as literature and most of all immortalized in songs.

Silent Night recalls the blessed birth. So do O Holy Night, What Child Is This?, Angels We Have Heard On High, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks At Night, Away In A Manger, We Three Kings of Orient Are.

Away from the manger, surely the most popular Christmas figure is Santa Claus. He is believed to have been derived from Saint Nicholas, the gift-giving Greek bishop and is also known as Father Christmas in England. Nowadays, he is often referred to as plain Santa. He is said to bring presents to the good children of the world on Christmas Eve. This is why the song Santa Claus Is Coming To Town says, “You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout,” or else…

The image of Santa Claus that we know today is based on Clement Moore’s description in the poem T’was The Night Before Christmas. This is the Santa of Up On The Housetop, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Petite Papa Noel. Later years brought about Here Comes Santa Claus, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Mamacita Donde Esta Santa Claus and Elvis Presley asked Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me while Eartha Kitt and later Madonna and Michael Bublé sang to Santa Baby about baubles and toys from Mercedes and Tiffany’s.

Santa makes his Christmas Eve rounds riding a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. Now, what if there were a ninth reindeer whose name was Rudolph and had a shiny red nose to light Santa’s way? Based on this idea, Robert L. May wrote the tale of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in 1939. Johnny Marks followed up with a song of the same title that became one of the biggest-selling Christmas songs of all time.

Frosty the Snowman is another favorite Christmas character. In the song composed by Walter “Jack” Rollins and Steve Nelson, he is a snowman brought to life by a magic hat to play before he melts away. Frosty is classified as a winter song. This means it is not about Christmas but about the winter season during which Christmas is usually celebrated.

Now also considered symbolic of Christmastime are the snow as in White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, jingling bells in Jingle Bells, the sleigh in Sleighride, the holly leaves, Deck The Halls, even the cold weather, Baby It’s Cold Outside and most of all, the evergreen tree, O Tannenbaum, Little Christmas Tree.

Thanks to the ballet based on the E.T.A. Hoffman story with beautiful music by Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker is now also associated with Christmas. So are its characters like the Nutcracker Prince, the SugarpIum Fairy, the Toy Soldiers and others. 

And what about the gifts mentioned in the cumulative round song from 18th century England, the Twelve Days of Christmas. A partridge, pear tree, turtle doves, French hens, gold rings and others. What about the much maligned fruit cake, which I love, by the way, and the toy trains on rails under the Christmas tree, and candy canes?  I must check on what made them part of Christmas.

 But no matter what the symbol or when the season, Christmas, as Jose Mari Chan says is really in our hearts. “Let’s sing Merry Christmas and a happy holiday/ this season may we never forget the love we have for Jesus…”

God bless us everyone.