Letter: Santa Claus - the Real Thing

Friday 15 December 1995 00:02 GMT

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From Mrs Gretchen Mason

Sir: Concerning Jonathan Leckie's assertions about Santa Claus, his origin and personality (Letters, 13 December), my Webster's dictionary confirms what I have always heard: that Santa Claus is "US, [a] colonial corruption of Dutch Sant Nikolass". Coca-Cola, being an American company, simply followed an American usage of long standing. As for Santa's personality, Clement Moore's well-known 19th-century poem "The Night Before Christmas" refers to him as a "jolly old elf".

Yours faithfully,

Gretchen Mason

Norwich

13 December

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