About St Nicholas - Day 18
In 1863, the American political satirist Thomas Nast borrowed from the poem The Night Before Christmas when he drew a cartoon showing Santa Claus giving presents to Union troops. For the next twenty-three years Nast annually produced drawings of this Santa figure in Harpers Magazine. In Nast’s cartoons, the Bishop’s mitre of the original was replaced by an elf’s red hat! His image of a jovial, red-cheeked Santa soon travelled around the world.
You can see this image at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1863_harpers.jpg
