Ever wonder why Santa chose to live in the North Pole?
St. Nick packs his pipe and moves to the North Pole
St. Nicholas’s migration to the North Pole is due most directly to Thomas Nast, an American cartoonist who submitted 33 Christmas drawings to Harper’s Weekly magazine between 1863 and 1886, one of which featured a village called “Santa Claussville, N.P.”
N.P., as you may have guessed, stands for the North Pole.
This was no random decision on Nast’s part. During the 1840s and 50s, public imagination in Europe and America was stirred by several highly publicized expeditions to the Arctic, which at that time was largely unexplored.
Not surprisingly, then, the Arctic acquired in the news, literature, and visual arts of the day an almost mythical status – particularly the North Pole, since no one would see it until Robert Peary took the honor in 1909, though his claim is still disputed.
Also, reindeer live in the Arctic, and as The Night Before Christmas had already demonstrated, reindeer were St. Nick’s preferred means of transportation.
The third and perhaps most compelling reason Nast chose the North Pole as St. Nick’s home is because it snows there all year long. And since snow is a symbol for Christmas in much of the world, the North Pole seemed a fitting refuge for this secularized Christmas figure.
But regardless of St. Nick’s reasons for relocating, whether they were due more to adventurous expeditions or speedy reindeer or an elfin love of snow, we think he made an excellent choice to set up in the Arctic.
We’ll be sure to tell him that the next time we’re there.
See more at…https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/blog/st-nick-and-the-arctic-the-north-pole-christmas-connection