Winter Holiday Celebrations: Object #2 – Arkansas Primary Source Sets

Santa Claus with a basket of toys

<p>This color illustration shows Santa Claus, dressed in a long red coat trimmed with fur, holding a large basket filled with toys on his left arm, and a net with a ball and a straw broom in his right arm.</p>

Christmas decoration, ca. 1870-1900

Text-dependent Questions:

Look at the way Santa is dressed, and the toys he is holding. What similarities and differences do you see between this image of Santa Claus and drawings of Santa Claus today? What can this image of Santa tell us about the way Christmas was celebrated in the late 1800s?

Citations

Santa Claus with a basket of toys. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division