These are the startling images of nineteenth-century portrayals of Santa Claus as bedraggled, hunchbacked and with strange characters. Santa Claus was not always depicted as the portly ...

So how did we end up a jolly ... And showing Santa as linked to the holiday became more popular as the practice of gift-giving on Christmas gained steam in the U.S. in the 19th century, especially ...

Nicholas was neither fat nor jolly but developed a reputation ... It wasn't until the late 19th century, he added, that the image of Santa became standardized as a full-size adult, dressed in ...

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf ... a man who might’ve been the first Santa-as-we-know-him-today. Maybe. Gulian Verplanck, a 19th century politician and Fishkill resident ...

The Santa emerging in the mid-19th century was plump and jolly and kind: a fitting image for the age of relative plenty being brought about by industrialization. He was grandfatherly. He was also ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — The classic image of Santa Claus ... it took hundreds of years to develop what we now know as Santa. Prior to the 19th century, there were several variations of a ...

One of the first American Santas was the plump, jolly fella ... in an early 19th-century painting by Robert Walter Weir. Also, from that museum, Santa is the focus of an image from a photography ...

Here’s why—and the history of its iconic symbols from Christmas trees to Santa Claus. There's no more recognizable Christmas symbol than Santa Claus—a jolly bearded man who also goes by ...