Here Comes Santa Claus

Here Comes Santa Claus

Here Comes Santa Claus
© 2008 Fine Art Photography and Digital Art by Sharon Anne Mau

This wonderful illuminated vintage sign is displayed on the exterior wall at the Santa Claus House in North Pole Alaska

This is a postcard I created from one of my images taken at the Santa Claus House in North Pole Alaska! I used the Magic Wand to highlight the Santa and his airplane to preserve it’s original texture, and then worked the background wall. I desaturated the colours, Dodge and Burn, added polished stone texture and quite extensive enhancements, Spiky Halo, Drop Shadow, and two borders, one with a chisel edge. I am researching to find the name of the artist who created the sign. It was during the day when I took this shot, and the sign was not illuminated. The sign is a wonderful artist’s creation of metal work hanging on an exterior wall with strings of Christmas lights attaching it to a banner which reads Ho Ho Ho!!!

01 October 2007
Santa Claus House
North Pole Alaska
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
F stop: F/9.0
Exposure: 1/250 second
Focal length: 56.0 mm
Flash: flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode (16) Metering mode: pattern (5) Dimensions: 2400×1663 Shutter speed (Tv): 8

Letters from Santa ~ “Santa’s most colourful period was undoubtedly during the early twentieth century. Fueled by the international postcard craze that lasted from 1900 until well into World War I in 1917, images of St. Nick in a multitude of costumes and activities filled mailboxes and scrapbooks around the world. What had started out as a plain postal card in Austria in 1869, evolved in a few years to highly decorated, multicoloured and embellished greeting cards that many considered works of art and few wanted to throw away.

With German manufacturers in the lead, an international industry developed that was able to produce beautiful chromolithograph and photographic postcards by the millions at a reasonable price. Liberalized postal regulations (which included permission to write personal messages on the cards), coupled with reduced mailing rates and rural free delivery in the United States, gave birth to the glorious era of the “penny postcard” ~ and thousands of them were Santas. It was during this time that we were made aware of Santa’s great ability to be a “man of the world.” It was obvious that he was still the prime source of Christmas gifts around the globe, but then we found that he really was not limited to just reindeer and sleigh in making his deliveries. We saw him aloft in a balloon; he was flying an airplane; he was captain of a boat; he drove automobiles of every conceivable make and he made steeds of many animals, not just the white horse, as Saint Nicholas. Yes, he was still above all, the friend and patron of children; we found him communicating with them not only through the mails and in department stores, but on that new-fangled invention, the telephone.” ~ Source: http://www.hwcn.org/link/cpc/cpc_klimch.html

“Many current American ideals about the way Christmas ought to be derive from the English Victorian Christmas, such as that described in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

The caroling, the gifts, the feast, and the wishing of good cheer to all – these ingredients came together to create that special Christmas atmosphere. The custom of gift-giving on Christmas dates only to Victorian times.

Before then it was more common to exchange gifts on New Year’s Day or Twelfth Night. Santa Claus is known by British children as Father Christmas. Father Christmas, these days, is quite similar to the American Santa, but his direct ancestor is a certain pagan spirit who regularly appeared in medieval mummer’s plays. The old-fashioned Father Christmas was depicted wearing long robes with sprigs of holly in his long white hair. Children write letters to Father Christmas detailing their requests, but instead of dropping them in the mailbox, the letters are tossed into the fireplace. The draft carries the letters up the chimney, and theoretically, Father Christmas reads the smoke. Gifts are opened Christmas afternoon.

From the English we get a story to explain the custom of hanging stockings from the mantelpiece. Father Christmas once dropped some gold coins while coming down the chimney. The coins would have fallen through the ash grate and been lost if they hadn’t landed in a stocking that had been hung out to dry. Since that time children have continued to hang out stockings in hopes of finding them filled with gifts.”

History of Christmas Traditions

Here Comes Santa Claus belongs to the following groups:

Complex Simplicity of Art, ! 100% !, ABSTRACT DIGITAL ART AND WRITING, All the Colors of the Rainbow, All Things Poetic, Artistic, Philosophical, Altered by Design, Alternative Process and Experimental Photography, Americas ~ Rural, Urban, Wild, Free is temporarily closed for new submissions while gallery archives are being cleared, Art Inspired by Dreams, Canon DSLR (One Image Per Day), Childhood, Cutest of the Cute, Digital Art Compilations, Dimensions, Everything Winter, Jolly Olde Saint Nicholas, Layered with Texture, Live, Love, Dream, Mixed Media, Myths, Legends and Fairytales, Object Studies & Concepts, PEACE, LOVE & TRANQUILITY, PixElations - The Art of Photoshop, Safe Haven, Selective Coloring, Signs and Vibrant and Vivid Color Available for sale as

Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters