Celebrate Poe

Santa Claus Establishes New York

December 22, 2021 George Bartley Season 1 Episode 92
Celebrate Poe
Santa Claus Establishes New York
Show Notes Transcript

Episode 92 - Santa Claus Establishes New York

  • 00:01 Introduction
  • 00:36 More about Washington Irving
  • 02:43 The Pompous Senator and Santa
  • 05:39 The Stage Coach
  • 07:11 Anticipating Bantam
  • 12:06 Shouts of joy!
  • 16:00 Meeting Bracebridge
  • 17:54 Future episodes
  • 22:39 Sources


  • What were Washington Irving’s best known works?
  • How did Irving “invent” Santa Claus?
  • Where did the Knicks get their name?
  • What is The Stage Coach about?
  • Who is Bantam?
  • Who is Bracebridge?
  • Who wrote about Christmas first - Dickens or Irving?


Sources for this episode include “The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon” by Washington Irving, Complete Fictional Works of Washington Irving by Washington Irving, Washington Irving: The Definitive Biography of America’s First Bestselling Author by Brian Jay Jones, The Literary Adventures of Washington Irving by Cheryl Harness, Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving by Andrew Burstein, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson, and The Reason for the Darkness of the Night. by John Tresch.


00:01  Introduction

Welcome to Celebrate Poe. My name is George Bartley, and this is episode Ninety Two - Santa Claus Establishes New York. And that was the opening to the holiday song - O Come Little Children.

1:56 More about Washington Irving

Now before I go into the second part of Old Christmas, I want to say a little bit more about the life and accomplishments of Washington Irving.

Now, Perhaps Washington Irving’s most famous story is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  Oh, his Rip Van Winkle is up there, but The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is usually considered his most popular work.  The Legend of Sleepy Hallow is a creepy tale about an awkward schoolteacher who vanishes mysteriously in the forest.  So most readers might know Washington Irving more as a author to read during Halloween season, but I think he has had far more of an influence on the Christmas season.

You could almost say that Washington Irving created Christmas in America as we know it - oh Dickens has had a great deal  of influence on Christmas as well - but many of Dicken’s attitudes were influenced by Washington Irving.

In Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving, biographer writes Andrew Burstein about Irving, “He did not ‘invent’ the holiday,”“but he did all he could to make minor customs into major customs—to make them enriching signs of family and social togetherness.”  By the way, Irving popularized the term Knickerbocker as a word for a person from New York City.  So you can say that Washington Irving furnished the name for the New York Knicks.
One of Irving’s biggest contributions to Christmas in America was his promotion of St. Nicholas as a beloved character, laying the groundwork for the figure we’d eventually embrace as Santa Claus.  I touched on this yesterday, but wanted to say a bit more about the origin of Santa Claus in America.

02:43 The Pompous Senator and Santa

I believe I mentioned in the last podcast episode that Irving had written A History of New York - a book that became a publishing sensation.  Now stay with me on this one. The book was said to be a parody of a book by Samuel L. Mitchill called The Picture of New-York; or the Traveller’s Guide through the Commercial Metropolis of the United States.  Mitchill was a Columbia medical professor and U.S. senator.  And he came across as one of those pompous know it alls - the kind of person who really doesn’t know that much but acted as though he knew everything about everything.  And when he didn’t know something, he would make up fictional accounts about Manhattan - trying to pass off some really tall tales as fact.  Senator Mitchill, like some of our know-it-all senators today - was setting himself up to be ridiculed. 

Enter Washington Irving. 

Washington Irving came up with a story about the shipwreck of a Dutch scouting party on Manhattan. During the shipwreck one of its members receives a vision in which “good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees, in that self-same wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children.”  Irving wrote that St. Nicholas told the Dutch to settle on the island—so Saint Nick, in a sense, became the founding father of the most famous city in America.

But Irving was actually doing something with this St. Nicholas story to do some good. In 1835, he helped found the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, serving as its secretary until 1841. Beyond his interest in Nicholas, Irving advanced Christmas as the festive pageant of presents and feasting that now dominates the American winter calendar.

And while the first two sections of Old Christmas in this episode known as The Stage Coach do not deal with the celebratory nature of Christmas in the same way as the last three episodes - Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Christmas Dinner, the first two episodes are an essential build-up to the festivities.

05:39 The Stage Coach

And now, from The Stage Coach.  And note how Washington Irving is a master at painting pictures with words to form images in your mind.

In the preceding paper I have made some general observations on the Christmas festivities of England, and am tempted to illustrate them by some anecdotes of a Christmas passed in the country. In the course of a December tour in Yorkshire, I rode for a long distance in one of the public coaches, on the day preceding Christmas. The coach was crowded, both inside and out, with passengers, who, by their talk, seemed principally bound to the mansions of relations or friends to eat the Christmas dinner. It was loaded also with hampers of game, and baskets and boxes of delicacies; and hares hung dangling their long ears about the coachman's box, —presents from distant friends for the impending feast. I had three fine rosycheeked schoolboys for my fellow passengers inside, full of the buxom health and manly spirit which I have observed in the children of this country. They were returning home for the holidays in high glee, and promising themselves a world of enjoyment. It was delightful to hear the gigantic plans of pleasure of the little rogues.

07:11 Anticipating Bantam

They were full of anticipations of the meeting with the family and household, down to the very cat and dog; and of the joy they were to give their little sisters by the presents with which their pockets were crammed; but the meeting to which they seemed to look forward with the greatest impatience was with Bantam, which I found to be a pony, and, according to their talk, possessed of more virtues than any steed since the days of Bucephalus. How he could trot! how he could run! and then such leaps as he would take—there was not a hedge in the whole country that he could not clear.  The coachman enjoys great consequence and consideration along the road; has frequent conferences with the village housewives, who look upon him as a man of great trust and dependence. When off the box, his hands are thrust in the pockets of his greatcoat, and he rolls about the inn-yard with an air of the most absolute lordliness. Here he is generally surrounded by an admiring throng of stable-boys and those nameless hangers-on that infest inns and taverns, and run errands, and do all kinds of odd jobs, for the privilege of battening on the drippings of the kitchen and the leakage of the tap-room. These all look up to him, treasure up his phrases; echo his opinions about horses and other topics of jockey lore; and, above all, endeavour to imitate his air and carriage. Every ragamuffin that has a coat to his back thrusts his hands in the pockets, rolls in his gait, and talks slang. Perhaps it might be owing to the pleasing serenity that reigned in my own mind, that I fancied I saw cheerfulness in every countenance throughout the journey. A stage-coach, however, carries animation always with it, and puts the world in motion as it whirls along. The horn, sounded at the entrance of a village, produces a general bustle. Some hasten forth to meet friends; some with bundles and bandboxes to secure places, and in the hurry of the moment can hardly take leave of the group that accompanies them. In the meantime, the coachman has a world of small commissions to execute. As the coach rattles through the village, every one runs to the window, and you have glances on every side of fresh country faces, and blooming, giggling girls. At the corners are assembled village idlers and wise men, who take their stations there for the important purpose of seeing company pass. The smith, with the horse's heel in his lap, pauses as the vehicle whirls by; and the sooty spectre in brown paper cap, labouring at the bellows, leans on the handle for a moment, and permits the asthmatic engine to heave a long-drawn sigh, while he glares through the murky smoke and gleams of the smithy. Perhaps the impending holiday might have given a more than usual animation to the country, for it seemed to me as if everybody was in good looks and good spirits. Game, poultry, and other luxuries of the table, were in brisk circulation in the villages; the grocers', butchers', and fruiterers' shops were thronged with customers. The housewives were stirring briskly about, putting their dwellings in order; and the glossy branches of holly, with their bright red berries, began to appear at the windows. The scene brought to mind an old writer's account of Christmas preparations:—"Now capons and hens, besides turkeys, geese, and ducks, with beef and mutton—must all die; for in twelve days a multitude of people will not be fed with a little. Now plums and spice, sugar and honey, square it among pies and broth. Now or never must music be in tune, for the youth must dance and sing, while the aged sit by the fire.

12:06 Shouts of joy!

I was roused from my fit of luxurious meditation by a shout from my little travelling companions. They had been looking out of the coach-windows for the last few miles, recognising every tree and cottage as they approached home, and now there was a general burst of joy—"There's John! and there's old Carlo! and there's Bantam!" cried the happy little rogues, clapping their hands. At the end of a lane there was an old sober-looking servant waiting for them: he was accompanied by a pointer, and by the redoubtable Bantam, a little old rat of a pony, with a shaggy mane and long, rusty tail, who stood dozing quietly by the roadside, little dreaming of the bustling times that awaited him. I was pleased to see the fondness with which the little fellows leaped about the steady old footman, and hugged the pointer, who wriggled his whole body for joy. But Bantam was the great object of interest; all wanted to mount at once; and it was with some difficulty that John arranged that they should ride by turns, and the eldest should ride first. Off they set at last; one on the pony, with the dog bounding and barking before him, and the others holding John's hands; both talking at once, and overpowering him by questions about home, and with school anecdotes. I looked after them with a feeling in which I do not know whether pleasure or melancholy predominated: for I was reminded of those days when, like them, I had neither known care nor sorrow. We stopped a few moments afterward to water the horses, and on resuming our route, a turn of the road brought us in sight of a neat country seat. I could just distinguish the forms of a lady and two young girls in the portico, and I saw my little comrades, with Bantam, Carlo, and old John, trooping along the carriage road. I leaned out of the coach-window, in hopes of witnessing the happy meeting, but a grove of trees shut it from my sight. In the evening we reached a village where I had determined to pass the night. As we drove into the great gateway of the inn, I saw on one side the light of a rousing kitchen fire beaming through a window. I entered, and admired, for the hundredth time, that picture of convenience, neatness, and broad, honest enjoyment, the kitchen of an English inn. It was of spacious dimensions, hung round with copper and tin vessels, highly polished, and decorated here and there with a Christmas green. Hams, tongues, and flitches of bacon were suspended from the ceiling; and a clock ticked in one corner. A well scoured deal table extended along one side of the kitchen, with a cold round of beef upon it, over which two foaming tankards of ale seemed mounting guard. Trim house-maids were hurrying backwards and forwards under the directions of a fresh, bustling landlady; but still seizing an occasional moment to exchange a flippant word, and have a rallying laugh, with the group round the fire. The scene completely realised the humble idea of the comforts of midwinter.

16:00 Meeting Bracebridge

I had not been long at the inn when a carriage drove up to the door. A young gentleman stepped out, and by the light of the lamps I caught a glimpse of a countenance which I thought I knew. I moved forward to get a nearer view, when his eye caught mine. I was not mistaken; it was Frank Bracebridge, a sprightly, good-humoured young fellow, with whom I had once travelled on the Continent. Our meeting was extremely cordial; for the countenance of an old fellow traveller always brings up the recollection of a thousand pleasant scenes, odd adventures, and excellent jokes. To discuss all these in a transient interview at an inn was impossible; and finding that I was not pressed for time, and was merely making a tour of observation, he insisted that I should give him a day or two at his father's country-seat, to which he was going to pass the holidays, and which lay at a few miles' distance. "It is better than eating a solitary Christmas dinner at an inn," said he; "and I can assure you of a hearty welcome in something of the old-fashion style." His reasoning was cogent; and I must confess the preparation I had seen for universal festivity and social enjoyment had made me feel a little impatient of my loneliness. I closed, therefore, at once with his invitation: the carriage drove up to the door; and in a few moments I was on my way to the family mansion of the Bracebridges.

17:54 Future episodes

You know, now that the weather (at least here in Indianapolis) is a lot colder   with bone chilling winds, I have far more time to spend inside, and am working a lot more on Celebrate Poe.  On the day of Christmas Eve, the episode will deal with - you guessed it - Christmas Eve.  Then Celebrate Poe will release Irving’s Christmas Day ON Christmas Day.  And since I like to keep episodes around 35 minutes or less, I will release the final section of Old Christmas - The Christmas Dinner   a few minutes later by itself on Christmas Day, Then on the day after Christmas, the podcast episode is The Festival by H.P. Lovecraft.  It would hardly be accurate to call The Festival a Christmas story in the traditional sense - it is FAR too dark - but, as you probably know, Lovecraft was greatly influenced by Poe, and The Festival is a really cool story.

When I started this podcast, I did a list of what to cover in Poe’s life using a basic chronological order. With the mass of information available about Poe, if you don’t have a written and thought out  pIan, then you bascially wander around aimlessly and end up no where.

Just the outline was about 50 pages, and I quickly found that as I did research, I would run into subjects that were interesing that were fascinating and I couldn’t leave out.  For example, in one chronological listing, I saw the eruption of Tambora as an event that took place during Poe’s life.  Well, I had never heard of Mount Tambora in my life, and was amazed at the massive effect that the eruption had on the world - the explosion took place in Indonesia, and actually affected life in England and Virginia.  And you can’t talk about Mount Tambora without talking about how the volcano’s effects led to a competition between a group of Romantic writers.  This contest led to Frankenstein and the first modern day vampire story.   And that led to the events and dynamics surrounding the series of Frankenstein movies, as well as Dracula.

Meanwhile - to quote the great comedian Stephen Colbert - meanwhile, I will start on Monday December 27 with a 30 minute recap series covering roughly 20 episodes of Celebrate Poe everyday. I will talk about the format of this podcast, a bit about its background, some of the elements of Poe’s early life, and the introduction, and why I feel qualified to do this podcast.

There will also be episodes every day during that week after Christmas on Tuesday - Friday - each dealing with summaries of roughly 20 podcasts At that rate, it should take 5 episodes in the series or 5 days until .Celebrate Poe reaches 100 episodes - which should happen before the end of 2001. This should all becomes a lot clearer as time goes by.

And one last thing - instead of aiming for 12:00 midnight as a release time for episodes, I am releasing the rest of the episodes this month starting at 8:00 am in the morning.  Not that I will be up at 8:00 - that’s asking too much - but I am doing all these episodes in advance.  Then I can upload a podcast episode and set a time for that episode to be released.  For example, the episode on Christmas Eve should be available on the morning of Christmas eve.   Hopefully each podcast should be up right away, but some hosts may take as long as 24 hours.

22:39 Sources

Sources for this episode include “The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon” by Washington Irving, Complete Fictional Works of Washington Irving by Washington Irving, Washington Irving: The Definitive Biography of America’s First Bestselling Author by Brian Jay Jones, The Literary Adventures of Washington Irving by Cheryl Harness, Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving by Andrew Burstein, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson, and The Reason for the Darkness of the Night. by John Tresch.

Thank you for listening to Celebrate Poe.