A History of St. Nicholas and
Other Midwinter Gift-Bringers
Finally: Proof of Santa’s Existence and His Impact on Our World
The 200-year legacy of the American Santa Claus as we know him is meticulously documented and explained in author Tom Jerman’s fascinating new book, Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers.
Readers will be surprised to learn Santa’s true origin story (hint: it wasn’t in Clement C. Moore’s popular poem, “The Night Before Christmas”), plus they’ll be treated to a deep dive into the backstories of other midwinter gift-givers from all over the globe. Jerman’s exhaustive research is evident in his detailed descriptions, and he masterfully showcases the rich diversity among the characters while also pointing out shared traits.
Santa Claus Worldwide is the first legitimate history of Santa Claus in more than a decade, and the first history in more than 100 years to provide a comprehensive look at the Yuletide gift-givers throughout the world.
Readers will discover:
• How midwinter gift-givers developed over thousands of years;
• The difference between Catholic followers of St. Nicholas and Protestant followers of the secular “terror men” in Europe following the Reformation;
• Historical examples of midwinter gift-givers who were female, Black, rich, gay, atheist and communist;
• When and how a New York printer named William Gilley created the “American Santa Claus” in an 1821 booklet, The Children’s Friend;
• How a wealthy New York professor, Clement C. Moore, bought a copy of The Children’s Friend and, in 1822, wrote “The Night Before Christmas;” and
• How The Children’s Friend disappeared from history until it was rediscovered in 1953.
Ultimately, Santa Claus Worldwide proves, conclusively, the existence of Santa and his impact on our world.
“Santa indisputably exists as the symbol of Christmas, and Christmas represents our most noble virtues,” Jerman says. “Symbols are real, and they can be very powerful.”
About the Author
Tom A. Jerman, a resident of Asheville, N.C., has bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and journalism and a juris doctorate degree from the University of Utah. Employed as a copy editor with The Salt Lake Tribune between 1974-78, he went on to practice labor and employment law for 35 years. In 2015, he took early retirement to pursue his desire to write something more interesting and enduring than legal treatises.
A serious collector, Jerman has amassed some 4,500 Santa figurines and ornaments, and thousands of antique postcards printed between 1900 and 1910. The enormous diversity of figures — temporal, geographic, historical, size, attire, date of gift-giving, mode of travel — prompted him to write Santa Claus Worldwide, the first volume of a planned trilogy.
For more information, please visit http://acollectionofsantas.com, or follow the author on Twitter at @tomajerman
Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas
and Other Midwinter Gift-Bringers
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
ISBN-10: 1476680930
ISBN-13: 978-1476680934
Available from
Amazon.com, BN.com
and other online retailers
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