Thomas Nast
established Santa's workshop and official residence at
the North Pole in four
different drawings between 1879 and 1886. On January 4,
1879, Harper’s Weekly published "A Christmas Post,"
showing a girl putting a letter in the mailbox,
addressed to St. Claus, North Pole. The sketch titled
"The Shine of Saint Nicholas" published on December 31,
1882, showed good children at the North Pole; Santa was
seated on a box with the inscription "Saint Nicholas,
North Pole." Harper’s Weekly on December 19, 1885
published "Santa Claus’s Route," a sketch showing two
children looking at a map of the world and tracing
Santa's journey from the North Pole to the United
States.
Finally, in "Santa Claus and His Works," printed in
Harper’s Weekly in 1886, Nast showed Santa and his
workshop at Santa Claussville, North Pole. In 1869,
American writer George P. Webster published Santa Claus
and His Works and took up this idea, explaining that
Santa's toy factory and "his house, during the long
summer months, was hidden in the ice and snow of the
North Pole". Although his name did not appear on the
cover, the seven color illustrations were provided by
Nast, who gave us a look at the red and white suit of
Santa. Many of the illustrations in the book were
colorized expansions of the woodcuts from Harper’s
Weekly.
***The other
'north pole' story...
Children
naturally wanted to know where Santa Claus actually came
from. Where did he live when he wasn't delivering
presents? Those questions gave rise to the legend that
Santa Claus lived at the North Pole, where his
Christmas-gift workshop was also located.
In 1925, since grazing reindeer would not be possible at
the North Pole, newspapers revealed that Santa Claus in
fact lived in Finnish Lapland. "Uncle Markus", Markus
Rautio, who compared the popular "Children's hour" on
Finnish public radio, revealed the great secret for the
first time in 1927: Santa Claus lives on Lapland's
Korvatunturi - "Ear Fell"
The fell, which is situated directly on Finland's
eastern frontier, somewhat resembles a hare's ears -
which are in fact Santa Claus's ears, with which he
listens to hear if the world's children are being nice.
Santa has the assistance of a busy group of elves, who
have quite their own history in Scandinanvian legend.
Over the centuries, customs from different parts of the
Northern Hemisphere thus came together and created the
whole world's Santa Claus - the ageless, timeless,
deathless white-bearded man who gives out gifts on
Christmas and always returns to Korvatunturi in Finnish
Lapland.
Since the 1950s, Santa has happily sojourned at
Napapiiri, near Rovaniemi, at times other than
Christmas, to meet children and the young at heart. By
1985 his visits to Napapiiri had become so regular that
he established his own Santa Claus Office there. He
comes there every day of the year to hear what children
want for Christmas and to talk with children who have
arrived from around the world. Santa Claus Village is
also the location of Santa's main Post Office, which
receives children's letters from the four corners of the
world.
