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Santa Claus, as we know him, didn’t originate from Clement C. Moore’s popular poem, “The Night Before Christmas,” as is often thought, or from Washington Irving’s History of New York, as suggested by Berkeley historian Charles W. Jones. Our American Santa Claus was, in fact, created by a New York printer in 1821 in a booklet called The Children’s Friend, explains author Tom Jerman.His fascinating new book, Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers, is a comprehensive history and homage to the world’s midwinter gift-givers, showcasing their extreme diversity as well as the many traits these characters share. It tracks the evolution of these figures across thousands of years, eventually landing on how an untitled poem by a wealthy New Yorker in 1822 gradually created an enduring tradition in which American children awaken on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought.The product of years of exhaustive historical research, Santa Claus Worldwide is the first legitimate hist