Santa Claus

Santa Claus, and through him Christmas and gift-giving. Send it with a seasonal greeting or anything about presents; it reads as festive, not religious.

Santa is a composite. He is traced to St. Nicholas, believed to have been a fourth-century bishop of Myra, in today's southern Turkey; the earliest written mention, from 440, already mixes in legend, and full biographies came only in the early Middle Ages. By about 1200 stories made him a protector of children and a gift-giver. In the 16th century, after the Reformation turned many Protestants against honouring saints, some communities moved gift-giving to Christmas. The Dutch kept Sinterklaas; in America he became a secular Christmas visitor who, in the 19th century, merged with England's Father Christmas.

The red-suited look is American. The 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", better known by its first line "'Twas the night before Christmas", popularized the sleigh, eight reindeer and chimney entrance; from the 1860s the cartoonist Thomas Nast's drawings helped fix the plump, white-bearded figure most people now picture.

What does it mean when someone sends 🎅?

Usually holiday cheer or a nudge about gifts. The words around it tell you which: a greeting, a wishlist, the office gift exchange, or Santa himself. Reply in kind; it rarely carries more than that.