História das estórias

Primeiro desenho com uma figura do Pai Natal. Da autoria de Thomas Nast, e publicado no semanário Harper’s Weekly em 1866.

A personagem do Pai Natal baseia-se em S. Nicolau, mas a ideia do velhinho de barba branca que conduz um trenó puxado por renas foi introduzida por Clement Clark More, num poema intitulado de "A Visit from St. Nicholas" [que com o passar do tempo se tornou mais conhecido por "An account of a visit from Saint Nicolas"]:

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf. . . .