Santa Claus

plural Santa Clauses · alternative Santaclaus · alternative Santa Clause · alternative Santa Klaus · alternative Santeclaus · alternative Santiclaus · alternative Santy Claus · alternative abbreviation Sta. Claus · alternative abbreviation Sta Claus · alternative abbreviation St. Claus · alternative abbreviation St Claus

1. artsA figure said to bring presents to people (especially children) at Christmas time.

   Last Monday the Anniversary of St. Nicholas, otherwise called St. A Claus, was celebrated at Protestant-Hall.

   1773 December 26, New York Gazette, p. 3

   5 more examples

   The noted St. Nicholas, vulgarly called Santaclaus—of all the saints in the kalendar the most venerated by true hollanders, and their unsophisticated descendants.

   1808 January 25, Salmagundi, p. 407

   Here, too, the winter festivals are just commencing; and the toy-shops are full of dolls and gew-gaws for the Bifana, who acts here the same comedy for children that Santiclaus does in America.

   1828 November, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, letter to his mother from Italy

   This is one of the developments Karl Marx failed to predict. Had he foreseen it he might have expired in guffaws, rolling in the aisle of the British Museum Library amid the notes for Das Kapital, that bearded Santa Claus of the revolution who slipped the unwanted gift of communism down the world's chimneys.

   1937 August, Lawrence Martin, "The Odyssey of a Bogeyman", Esquire, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 39

   Emmeline: Oh Richard, you can't know everything. Only God knows everything. Richard: God—He can't find us any better than Santa Claus.

   1980, Douglas Day Stewart, The Blue Lagoon

   By 1900, department-store Santa Clauses were common – lodged in grottoes, cottages, and workshops or on thrones, they presided over a never-ending stream of children.

   2005, Gerry Bowler, “Santa the Adman”, in Santa Claus: A Biography, McClelland & Stewart, →ISBN, page 142

   Synonyms: Claus, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Mr. Claus, Saint Claus, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Santa

2. broadlyfigurativelyA generous source of free gifts or benefits.

   I then probe as to whether he is waiting for some Santa Claus to make him well, strong, and happy, or whether he is waiting for rigor mortis to deliver him from his earthly troubles.

   1978, Henry Grayson, Clemens A. Loew, Changing approaches to the psychotherapies, page 314

3. A number of places in the United States.
   1. A ghost town in Mohave County, Arizona.
   2. A city in Toombs County, Georgia.
   3. A town in Spencer County, Indiana. Original name: Santa Fe.