The jolly old elf has become an amalgamation of religions, commercial enterprise and the spirit of giving. Do we even know who Santa is anymore?

Once again, the holidays are in full swing. The malls and downtowns are mobbed with shoppers, all of them searching for the perfect gift for friends, relatives and loved ones. In the background ring the bells of Salvation Army volunteers, and every store is playing Christmas carols in every conceivable genre. Wreaths hang on doorways, and Santa Claus is everywhere.

In a time when tolerance for public celebration of the Christmas holiday is plummeting, Santa just gets bigger and bigger. Far and away our most recognizable Christmas icon, he is, perhaps fittingly, a product of our collective making.

The roots of the red suit, white beard and spirit of gift giving lie in Saint Nicholas, a third-century Greek aristocrat who gave his inheritance to the poor. But throughout history, he’s gradually transformed from a Christian icon to a secular symbol of commercial Christmas. The first department store Santa appeared in 1881 at the Boston Store in Brockton, Mass., when a roly-poly Scottish immigrant was hired to play Santa Claus. Today, department store Santas have gone the way of the department store, while blow-up imitations wave to us from every third front lawn.

With no real point of invention, Santa has become an amalgamation of religions, commercial enterprise and the spirit of giving, both a beloved figure and a commercial tool, used to sell everything from beverages to cars. He’s whoever we want him to be, the ultimate wish-fulfillment fantasy.

Locally, one of the last department store Santas makes an appearance in Newington.

Seventy-five-year-old Bob Mathieu of York Beach, Maine, has been playing Santa at the Fox Run Mall for six years. He takes his red velvet throne in front of Sears amid giant plastic candy canes, fake powder snow and a line of parents and children excited to get their pictures taken with him.

With his authentic white beard and wire-rimmed glasses, Mathieu is a dead ringer for the jolly old elf. It’s a part-time gig for Mathieu, who retired from his job as a purchasing manager for Westinghouse Electric/ABB Power and wanted to keep himself busy. With 50 to 100 visitors a day coming to see him, Mathieu has become a holiday fixture at the mall.

“A lot of families keep their pictures from year to year and hang them all up together,” says 23-year-old Danielle Webber, Santa’s chief full-sized “elf.” She’s wearing a red shirt that says “Santa’s Little Helper,” and helps get the kids to smile while she takes their pictures. Both Webber and Mathieu work for Photo Promotions, which is based out of Hollister, Mass. Pictures start at $20 for a basic package.

“It’s a long day and a long week,” Mathieu says. “I always need a cup of coffee in the morning.” Mathieu works 12 hours a day, seven days a week for the entire month of December.

Mathieu had a fake beard until eight years ago, when he decided to grow a real one. He starts growing it in April and shaves it the day after Christmas.

“A lot of the kids do think I’m real,” Mathieu explains. “They pull my beard and their eyes light up and they say, ‘He is the real Santa!’”

Webber says that one day last year while Mathieu was sick, Photo Promotions hired a fill-in Santa with a fake beard. “Everyone kept asking where the real Santa was,” she says. “His beard was put on all wrong, and the mustache was down around his chin.”

Even though Mathieu makes a great Santa, not all of the children who come to visit him are nice. Some of them kick, scream and cry when their parents try to put them on Mathieu’s lap. “You have to watch the teenagers as well,” Mathieu says. “Sometimes they get mean.” Visitors range in age from one week to 101 years old.

“The mothers feel like they have to get a perfect smile from the kids,” Mathieu says. “I say, get them the way they really are. I like to have a one-on-one experience and make it really special for the kids. The approach is important. You have to say just the right things. Sometimes I tell them to give me a high-five. That usually works.”

When asked about the most unusual gift requests he’s heard, Mathieu immediately responds with several. “Coal,” he says. “Keys to new cars, pets, and the worst one is when the kids ask for mommy and daddy to get back together.” Mathieu never tells parents what their kids ask for, and tries to patiently explain why he can’t bring them an iPod or a new puppy on Christmas day.

“I try to let them know that things like that are very expensive and they can only have them with mom and dad’s permission,” Mathieu says. Sometimes the parents even get in on the Christmas wishes. “Moms ask for Santa to pay bills sometimes,” he says, but the parents don’t usually sit on his lap.

Mathieu says he loves being Santa every year, and Webber echoes his sentiments. “People wonder how I do my job every day,” she says. “I wish it was year round. It’s fun.”

The only downside to the job is that Mathieu often catches colds from the kids, and has gotten conjunctivitis quite a few times. “I have to take a lot of vitamins to stay well,” he says. Being Santa isn’t easy.

Mathieu’s recognizable Santa Claus outfit and persona are a result of hundreds of years of evolution. Aside from being a generous gift giver, the original St. Nicholas was also known as a protector of children. He was made a bishop in the Catholic Church and died on Dec. 6, which is still celebrated as a day of gift giving throughout Europe. St. Nicholas wore long robes and had white hair and a long white beard.

In 1804, under the pen name of Diedrich Knickerbocker, Washington Irving wrote a satire called “A History of New York,” which mentions the Dutch figure of “Sinterklaas.” In 1812 Irving amended the story and included a flying wagon in which “Sancte Claus” (the English derivative) brought presents to children. Santa’s famous reindeer came from a poet named William Gilley, who mentioned one reindeer pulling a sleigh. Clement Clarke Moore’s famous poem “An Account of a Visit from Saint Nicholas,” better known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” added another seven reindeer. However, both Gilley’s and Moore’s poems featured miniature, elf-like Santas.

The modern-day Santa was born out of Moore’s poem and a Philadelphia merchant named J.W. Parkinson. In 1841, Parkinson hired an actor to dress up in robes and climb the chimney of his shop. Thomas Nast, an artist for Harper’s Weekly, drew Santa Claus with a white beard, dressed entirely in fur in 1863. By 1881 his drawings had evolved, and the picture entitled “Merry Old Santa Claus” showed a portly Santa dressed in red, carrying a bundle of toys. Louis Prang, a Boston-based printer, made a greeting card in 1885 that also featured Santa wearing red. Until then, Santa was known to wear multi-colored suits or furs.

In the early 1930s, Coca-Cola used Santa for a Christmas ad campaign, trying to draw more children into the soft drink market and hoping to increase sales throughout the winter months. Artist Haddon Sundblom created Coca-Cola’s ruddy-cheeked, cheerful Santa, enduringly aligning him with commercialism. Sundblom definitely didn’t create the modern Santa, but he did help Santa become the money-making powerhouse he is today.

People identify with Santa because he has become a tradition in and of himself, taking on the role of a magical Christmas figurehead who can make the holiday special for everyone who chooses to celebrate it.

It’s not always an easy fit, though. This year, the Hillsboro, N.H., Chamber of Commerce canceled a holiday tea that was scheduled to be held at a church because Pastor Greg Lull wanted to read a brief section of the Gospel along with “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Andrea Kaubris, the Chamber’s spokeswoman, explained that all of the Chamber’s activities had to be non-religious.

The organizers of the event tried to move the event to a more secular location, but couldn’t find one and decided to cancel entirely. Kaubris cited the commercialization of Christmas and removal of its Christian dogma that allowed the tea to be put on for the previous 12 years. “It’s about the kids and it’s about the merchants in town,” Kaubris told a reporter from the Associated Press.

The works currently on display at the Franklin Gallery in Somersworth once again make Santa all shapes, sizes and colors. Located at Ben Franklin Crafts, manager Ross Bachelder has invited several artists to participate in the first “Santa Claus Invitational” art exhibit, which he hopes will become an annual event. Each artist has made a representation of Santa Claus as he or she sees him.

Bachelder has been a framer for 11 years and frame shop manager at Ben Franklin Crafts for five years. Wanting to enrich his job, he pitched to his employers the idea of opening a small gallery. Now Bachelder oversees two and sometimes three invitational exhibits a year. “I love the wide range of media and interpretations,” Bachelder says. “There’s no limitations except relevance to theme and good taste.”

Bachelder’s own interpretation of Santa Claus is called “Van Santagogh” and is a remaking of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Self Portait with Bandaged Ear.”

“I’ve been fascinated for many years with Van Gogh. The hat in the original portrait looked like a Santa hat,” Bachelder says, sweeping his hand across his work, which he painted in oils. “I changed the hat from black and green to red, and the coat from a deep green to red.” Bachelder recently switched from acrylics to oils because oils are more immediately emotional and textural, and the similarities between Van Gogh and Bachelder’s Santa are striking. Their eyes carry the same weight and sadness. “I wanted to challenge the expectations that people have to be constantly happy and joyful around the holidays.”

Artist and framer Tom Glover of Gonic usually paints landscapes but decided to branch out for the invitational. He created a mixed-media piece consisting of pencil, paper collage and paint on paper. Santa’s face is in the center of a $100 bill, and his body is formed with loose pencil lines that end in claws resembling an eagle’s talons. Named “Santa Claws,” Glover says the piece is “symbolic of people who are too engrossed in consumerism.” Atop Santa’s head is a crown of thorns and at his feet is a small cross, aligning Santa with Jesus Christ. “I tied the symbols together to make a message to at least make people think about the season,” Glover says. “Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of fond memories about Santa Claus. I just wanted to provoke awareness.” Glover mentions news clips of parents pushing and shoving while waiting in line to buy the hottest new XBox or Tickle Me Elmo. In smudged pencil off to the side of the piece are the words “Ho Ho Whore.”

“It could be offensive to some people,” Glover says. “I just wanted to question what the season is really about.”
Using pieces of tobacco, apple and cookie tins, Rochester-based assemblage artist Larry Reynolds, who focuses on re-using materials, constructed a three-dimensional Santa surrounded by a wreath.

“Santa can be represented in so many ways,” Reynolds says. “There has long been controversy about using cultural icons for commercial gain, and an equally lengthy history of Santa selling every sort of product. I showed that literally, by using the products themselves to create Santa.” Reynolds knows that some people will protest his use of a Prince Albert Tobacco tin in a children’s character, but he defends himself by citing Clement Moore’s poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” which describes “the stub of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.”

Using commercial products to create Santa Claus also fits with how many parents feel throughout the season. “As a child, gifts just appeared under the tree, without any credit card bills attached,” Reynolds says. “That is truly the magic of Christmas.”

South Berwick Artist Mary Lou Bagley contributed the only female image of Santa in the show, a three-dimensional bright red face surrounded by a red hood of alpaca fiber fabric. “I knew it would be female, as I tend to think of women as the makers of Christmas festivities and the buyers of the gifts,” Bagley says. “I knew she would be about a deeper sense of giving than hitting the malls. Red is about life force and the color of the heart.” At the bottom of the figure’s folds of red fabric is a small bird’s nest, symbolic of small joys and warmth around the holidays. The piece is titled “She Who Truly Gives.” Bagley says she wasn’t trying to make a point with the piece, but rather wanted to share an image of love and giving. “I have a 18-month-old grandson and am reliving the wonder all over again,” she explains. “Believing in Santa is about keeping in touch with the magic of life.”

Tatiana Burimova, a Russian artist who moved to Gonic two years ago, tried to capture Santa’s magic in her clay piece “Grandpa Frost.” Burimova explains that in the Russian tradition Grandpa Frost is a close relative of Santa Claus, and he and his granddaughter Snow-Girl (Snegurochka) bring children presents. Grandpa Frost wears a long dress because of the cold Russian winter, and the two ride on magic horses instead of reindeer. “For me, the image of Santa has not changed too much throughout my life,” Burimova says. “He still makes me smile and I still wait for wonder.”

The Exeter Post Office is helping to continue the enduring childhood tradition through their “Letters to Santa” Program, which aims to help needy children get a Christmas gift from Santa. In 1912, U.S. Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to give North Pole-bound letters to charitable organizations that write response letters and purchase gifts. Local fire departments, police, the Salvation Army and other charities have all participated to great success.

Jim Adams, District Manager for the New Hampshire and Vermont division of the U.S. Postal Service, says, “It’s a wonderful thing to have so many people in this state that are willing to give up their own time and money to help children in need.”

The post office sets aside the letters, and the charitable organizations pick them up two weeks before Christmas. In some cases, the recipients contact parents to make sure that the gift the child asked for is appropriate, or to see if the parents have already purchased it. Kids ask for things like toys, video games and clothes, he says. There’s no cost to participate in the program, and each charity or individual must fill out a form that legitimizes them as a recipient of the letter. “We want to make sure these don’t get misused,” Adams says. 

With so much invested in this character—from parents to charities to Sears—perhaps it’s understandable that adults want to remain in on the fun. This year, the beloved figure of Santa is also at the center of a First Amendment controversy in Maine, as Belchertown, Mass.-based specialty beer distributors Will and Daniel Shelton fight to protect their own image of Santa.

The State of Maine refused to let Shelton sell “Santa’s Butt Porter” because its label shows a Norman Rockwell-esque image of Santa and his corpulent rear end sitting on a barrel of beer, which is also called a “butt,” while drinking a beer.
Distributors must obtain the approval of the Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement, which ensures beer labels display correct information, like alcohol content and volume. They also look at the illustrations on the labels.

This past November, the Shelton Brothers received a letter from the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement that said their beer could not be sold in the State of Maine, citing only Chapter 7 of the Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement’s manual of rules and regulations, which states that “Advertisements of liquor shall not contain undignified or improper illustrations.”

The MCLU filed a case against the State of Maine on Shelton’s behalf, citing that humor is a protected form of expression under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The label illustration, which was painted by Massachusetts-based artist Gary Lippincott, is one of three labels named in the case, the other two of which feature bare-breasted women. The label garnering the most attention is definitely Santa—the State of New York also tried to ban Santa’s Butt Porter but allowed it to be sold after a lawsuit was filed. 

The Shelton Brothers told Lippincott what they wanted the label to look like, and the artist didn’t think there would be any controversy. “There are far more terrible images out there in the world which have become acceptable to the masses, like seeing a head get blown off in a video game,” Lippincott says.

In fact, Santa’s Butt Porter has been sold in 45 states for three years without anyone raising an eyebrow. However, in 2005 the State of Connecticut tried to ban another of the Sheltons’ Christmas beers, Seriously Bad Elf, whose label contains an elf aiming a slingshot at a silhouette of Santa and his reindeer against a full moon. The State of Maine approved both Seriously Bad Elf, its predecessor Bad Elf, and another beer called Warm Welcome, which features Santa’s lower half coming down a chimney onto a blazing fire.

“To me, Santa is all about joy,” Shelton says. “He’s a generous, joyful spirit, and I feel joy when I drink a good beer. As an adult, Santa might want to enjoy a good beer every now and then, too.”

The Shelton brothers have received a lot of angry phone calls and e-mails over the label.

Zachary Heiden, staff attorney for the MCLU, says this is the first time he has defended Santa Claus. “Art is art, whether it’s hanging in a museum or labeling a beer bottle, and it’s entitled to the First Amendment’s protection,” Heiden says. “The First Amendment is not just an abstract idea. It’s not just the books we read or the art we see. It’s also the beer we drink.” Until the case is decided, the beer can’t be sold in Maine, but the Daniel Shelton is optimistic that he and his brother will win the case.

“Santa Claus has always been a commercial thing,” Daniel Shelton says. “You can sell anything you want. People are pumping Santa Claus with moral content that doesn’t exist.”