Lincoln and Santa Claus

[Anita]

   

Detail from Thomas Nast’s illustration “A Christmas Furlough” for the front page of a 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly.
- See more at: http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/12/13...zjve4.dpuf

"In 1863 Lincoln asked Nast to create a drawing of Santa with some union soldiers. The resulting image had a demoralizing influence on the Confederate army. Santa had joined the enemy showing Santa was on the side of Gen. Grant in the North. ... In the South by 1863 the North had blockaded their ports. The South explained to their children that even Santa couldn't get through the blockade." http://books.google.com/books?id=ePQaphs...hgvIpfj7ow

"Nast was not the only one to use Christmas as a propaganda tool. On the Union side, The New York Herald also engaged in propaganda. One illustration published in the paper included Santa Claus fuming that he could not reach southern children, due to the northern blockade. On the Confederate side, The Richmond Examiner described Santa to its young readers as "a Dutch toy monger" who was a New York/New England "scrub" and Hottentot that had nothing to do with traditional Virginian celebrations of Christmas." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_i..._Civil_War