Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Santa Claus sliding down the chimneys of boys and girls to deliver presents on Christmas Eve. Of course, his preferred method of transportation is the sleigh, drawn by what else, but reindeer, never mind the fact that reindeer don’t fly in reality. The custom of Christmas presents has its original roots buried in the Roman tradition of giving gifts on New Year’s Day. Once the church named Christ’s birthday as December 25, this Roman tradition was connected to the gifts from the three wise men. The origins of Santa Claus are also connected to the legend of Saint Nicholas, a Turkish bishop who gave gifts. Saint Nicholas died in the 4th Century, sparking a gift-giving tradition across Europe. To commemorate his death, good children woke up to find a toy from Saint Nicholas on December 6. In Holland, Saint Nicholas became Sinterklass, hence his eventual name, Santa Claus.

Then, in 1823, Clement Clarke Moore, a seminary professor wrote the poem “The Night Before Christmas,” which helped to create the story of the jolly man who used reindeer to deliver presents (although some debate the origins of the poem. However, the poem did not describe Santa’s appearance; this was the role of Thomas Nast, a cartoonist from Harper Weekly, who drew Santa in 1863 as tall and a bit rotund, carrying a sack full of presents. Nast illustrated Santa many times throughout his career, and he gradually began dressing Santa in red, although he did outfit him in stars and stripes at one point as Nast supported the Union in the Civil War. Harper’s Weekly also created Santa’s home, which was Santa Claussville, N.P., with the N.P. being a reference to the North Pole. Claiming that the North Pole was Santa’s home made sense, as it was cold enough for reindeer. Nast used the images of Santa Claus in his political cartoons as well. 

The Santa in this picture doesn’t seem to fit our expectations in any way, as he looks pretty young, and not at all rotund. His beard does not appear white either, which is not in keeping with “The Night Before Christmas.” The toys dangling off the back of Santa’s sleigh (note that they are not in the characteristic bag slung over Santa’s shoulder), seem to be the sort of toys that you would expect to see in 1909, although some of them are a bit creepy. The toys include the more mundane: a drum, several dolls, a toy horse, and a toy train. But they also include some slightly more unusual toys: a bucket and what appears to be a naked doll hanging with a noose around her neck. Santa is a bit skinnier than he has been recently imagined (and even imagined by Thomas Nast.) None of the gifts are wrapped; the custom of wrapping gifts dates back ages, even though the use of custom paper to conceal the gift only dates to 1917, with the Hall brothers, of the Hallmark store. So gifts exchanged in 1909 would have been wrapped in something, even if it wasn’t colorful commercial wrapping paper.

We are left with the rather large question of why the sleigh is being pulled by turkeys of all things. Turkeys do have strong legs, so they may be able to pull a sleigh. And, unlike the reindeer, wild turkeys can fly (although not for long distances), and according to some accounts, they can soar up to 55 mph. Of course, turkeys are more often associated with Thanksgiving, although Thanksgiving was not a national holiday until the 19th century. Presidents occasionally called for a Thanksgiving Day, and Alexander Hamilton once said, "No citizen of the U.S. shall refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day." William Bradford’s journals indicated that the colonists hunted turkeys in 1621, and when Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, turkeys seemed a logical choice, especially since the turkey is a uniquely American bird as the wild turkey is native only to the Americas, and were only introduced to Europe and Asia by Spanish traders. In the case of this photograph, perhaps, the turkeys are ushering in Christmas, as they pull the holiday behind them. Perhaps they are in reference to the fact that Saint Nicholas was from Turkey. Or maybe this image simply puts an American spin on a holiday so solidly rooted in Europe.