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Show Just how old is Santa Claus? That is a question that parents are called upon to answer often and it is one that is extremely hard to answer. an-swer. Like everything else related to Christmas tradition, there is a wide difference of opinion. The idea of Santa goes back to Europe, hundreds of years ago. Santa came to life from legends that followed the great St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. He adopted different dif-ferent forms as suited to the different dif-ferent countries, but was mostly pictured as a thin, austere man with a long white beard. The age of Santa, as American children know him, can be almost definitely ascertained. The plump, smiling and jolly fellow is 88 years old this Christmas. Thomas Nast, an American cartoonist, car-toonist, drew the now familiar form of Santa in 1863 to illustrate a book of Christmas poems by J. M. Gregory. Greg-ory. For the first time in his unknown un-known life span, Santa appeared to have a full stomach under his red suit and a jolly smile on his face. It might well be said that his American Ameri-can life began in that year. |