Clement Clarke Mooreโs 1823 poem โAccount of a Visit from St. Nicholasโ redefined Christmas in America. As historian Steven Nissenbaum explains in โThe Battle for Christmas,โ Mooreโs secular St. Nick weakened the holidayโs religious associations, transforming it into a familial celebration that culminated in Santa Clausโ toy deliveries on Christmas Eve.
Nineteenth-century writers, journalists and artists were quick to fill in details about Santa that Mooreโs poem left out: a toy workshop, a home at the North Pole and a naughty-or-nice list. They also decided that Santa Claus wasnโt a bachelor; he was married to Mrs. Claus.
Yet scholars tend to overlook the evolution of Santa Clausโ spouse. Youโll see brief references to a handful of late-19th-century Mrs. Claus poems โ especially Katharine Lee Batesโ 1888 โGoody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride.โ
But as I discovered when I began work on a class about Christmas in literature, the writers who created Mrs. Claus were not just interested in filling in the blanks of Santaโs personal life. The poems and stories about Mrs. Claus that appeared in newspapers and popular periodicals spoke to womenโs central role in the Christmas holiday. The character also provided a canvas to explore contemporary debates about gender and politics.
The hardest-working woman in the North Pole
Christmas in 19th-century America depended on womenโs time and labor: Women prepared family celebrations, organized community and church events and worked in industries that fed seasonal demand for cards, toys and clothing.
This work was both essential and, at times, exhausting: As the century drew to a close, the Ladiesโ Home Journal urged its readers not to โtire themselves out preparing for Christmas.โ
Many literary depictions of Mrs. Claus paid tribute to the long hours, practical know-how and managerial skills that womenโs holiday preparations required.
Sara Conantโs 1875 short story โMr. and Mrs. Santa Claus,โ which appeared in an 1875 issue of Western Rural: Weekly Journal for the Farm & Fireside, celebrated these efforts by describing Mrs. Claus working alongside women across America as they cooked, cleaned and sewed. In Ada Sheltonโs 1885 story โIn Santa Claus Land,โ Santa acknowledged his debt to Mrs. Claus: Without her hard work, he could โnever get throughโ the Christmas season.
But on Christmas Eve, Mrs. Claus hit the North Poleโs glass ceiling.
For Conant, Mrs. Claus was as โindispensibleโ as Santa, an equal partner in the โjoint workโ of preparing for holiday festivities. Still, in most Mrs. Claus literature, Santa traveled the world filling stockings while Mrs. Claus stayed home to await his return. In 1884โs โMrs. Santa Claus Asserts Herself,โ Sarah J. Burkeโs tearful Mrs. Claus, ignored by Santa and his fans, is left to โcower aloneโ clasping the fingers sheโd โworked to the boneโ as Santa speeds off on his sleigh.
A few writers did, however, reward Mrs. Clausโ hard work with a sleigh ride of her own.
Georgia Greyโs 1874 short story โMrs. Santa Clausโs Rideโ allows Mrs. Claus to venture out alone, but only after Santa โ adamantly โnot a womanโs rights manโ โ makes her promise to remain unseen. To avoid questioning Santaโs authority or the belief that women belonged at home, the anonymous author of the 1880 tale โMrs. Santa Clausโs Christmas-Eveโ manufactures an emergency: Santa has taken off without some dolls, so Mrs. Claus must saddle Blitzen and deliver them.
Mrs. Claus on the naughty list
Other writers were less willing to allow Mrs. Claus to step outside the home.
Negative representations of her Christmas Eve travels reflected backlash against womenโs demands for independence and the vote. The majority of Mrs. Claus writing took place after the Civil War, alongside state and national efforts to grant voting rights to women.
Publications geared toward women didnโt necessarily advocate for more rights and political power. In 1871, the popular womanโs magazine Godeyโs Ladyโs Book published an anti-suffrage petition addressed to Congress and signed by a number of prominent women, with Godeyโs female editor, Sarah Hale, encouraging readers to collect additional signatures. Like Georgia Greyโs Santa, the petition argued that womenโs place was in the home, not in public.
Charles S. Dickinsonโs โMrs. Santa Clausโs Adventure,โ which appeared in the Dec. 1, 1871, issue of Woodโs Household Magazine, offered a cautionary tale for disobedient wives. Refusing to believe that some children were too naughty to visit, Mrs. Claus trades places with Santa on Christmas Eve. But when she attempts to climb down chimneys to deliver gifts, she is attacked by โhateful impsโ that embody childrenโs โnaughty words and deeds.โ Depicting Mrs. Clausโ advocacy for children as unrealistic and naive, Dickinson echoes anti-suffrage arguments that emphasized the dangers awaiting women who abandoned the home.
M.B. Hortonโs โA New Departureโ took its title from the National Woman Suffrage Associationโs failed strategy to register women voters. The 1879 story โ published, like the anti-suffrage petition, in Godeyโs Ladyโs Book โ discredits womenโs rights activists through its negative portrayal of Mrs. Claus, called โMrs. St. Nicholasโ in this telling.
Jealous of Santaโs fame, Mrs. St. Nick tries to deliver gifts in his place, but her plot to usurp Santaโs role as gift-giver fails when Santa tricks her into delivering a sack of worthless, embarrassing goods.
Mrs. Claus seems an unlikely target of anti-suffrage propaganda, but her association with the ultimate domestic holiday made the idea of an independent Mrs. Claus especially shocking.
โGoody Santa Clausโ takes the reins
Nineteenth-century writing about Mrs. Claus focused primarily on her work ethic and whether that work would ever allow her a share of Santaโs Christmas limelight.
But scholar and suffragist Katharine Lee Bates, best known as the author of โAmerica the Beautiful,โ took a different tack: She gave Mrs. Claus a voice and personality of her own.
Drawing upon elements of previous Mrs. Claus literature, Batesโ โGoody Santa Claus on A Sleigh Rideโ creates an outspoken Mrs. Claus who loves her work and her husband โ and is not about to be left behind when Santa makes his deliveries.
Like Burkeโs despondent Mrs. Claus, Batesโ Claus โ whose title, Goody, stands in for โMrs.โ โ begins her monologue with a question: Why does Santa get โall the gloryโ while she has โnothing but workโ?
โGoody Santa Claus on a Sleigh-Rideโ first appeared in the childrenโs periodical Wide Awake. While the illustrations cast Mrs. Claus as affectionate, grandmotherly and nonthreatening, Batesโ text reveals the powerhouse behind Goodyโs meek exterior.
Most Mrs. Claus literature highlights her domesticity, but Batesโ Goody is equally adept at housework and outdoor chores. As Santa snacks on Christmas treats and relaxes by the fire, Goody tends Christmas trees, an orchard and toy-growing plants; she also raises livestock and takes on the risky-sounding task of chasing thunder to โfashion fire-crackers with the lightning.โ
Although Santa allows Goody to ride beside him, her North Pole work resume isnโt enough to convince him that she has enough โbrainโ to fill a stocking, and he fears that seeing her climb a chimney would โgive his nerves a shock.โ Left alone on the rooftop while Santa does his work, Mrs. Claus is on the outside looking in as she peers through the skylight.
But the holes in a poor childโs Christmas stocking stop Santa in his tracks: Sewing was Mrs. Clausโ department. Seizing her chance to shine, Goody mends the sock, proving the value of womenโs work and breaking Santaโs rules about chimney-climbing and stocking-filling in the process.
The themes and plots of 19th-century Mrs. Claus writing โ including stealth sleigh rides โ reappear in Mrs. Claus narratives to this day, and for good reason. Katharine Batesโ thunder-chasing, bonnet-wearing, sweet-talking Goody โ and the many Mrs. Clauses who came before her โ still speak to every woman who has ever dreamed of a little rest, a little recognition and a seat in the sleigh.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/how-mrs-claus-embodied-19th-century-debates-about-womens-rights-169588.