From Saint to Santa exhibition, Wembley Park

Where does Santa come from? Why, the North Pole, right? Well, yes and no. Modern-day Santa Claus, a kindly, cheery grandfatherly figure, does indeed live at the North Pole, whence he travels south on his sleigh pulled by reindeer loaded with presents that he will send down chimneys on Christmas Eve to the delight of well-behaved children.

That relatively simple sentence packs centuries of history, myth and folklore, and what a fascinating open-air exhibition now on show at Wembley Park does is illustrate how the myth evolved. Entitled From Saint to Santa: The Making of a Holiday Hero, it consists of a series of light boxes displaying a collection of 32 images that trace Santa's story from pre-Christian Roman times to the 21st century.

From Saint to Santa: The Making of a Holiday Hero, Wembley Park. Photo: Chris Winter/Wembley Park
Pagan winter festivals, such as the Roman Saturnalia and the winter celebrations of Norse myth provided the seeds of our current Christmas celebrations; there was partying and the exchange of gifts – the Norse god Odin played a key part, roaming around in his eight-legged horse, as shown in a striking illustration. He is perhaps the earliest embryonic manifestation of the gift-giving figure we've come to know as Santa Claus.

More tangible was St Nicholas, the real-life fourth-century Mediterranean bishop whose kindness and munificence offer more building bricks to the developing figure of Santa Claus; in fact, the name Santa Claus attests to the evolution over many languages and cultures of Saint Nicholas.

From then on, the current image of Santa Claus gradually develops. He was not always the kindly figure we've become accustomed to; on the contrary. For many years he was accompanied by Krampus, a devilish figure with an overlong tongue, who kidnapped and disappeared misbehaving children; later Krampus mellowed into the German Knecht Ruprecht, who left naughty children in place, but showered them with ashes.

Nor was he dressed in fur-trimmed red until fairly recently: green or brown, the colours of nature, were preferred in depictions of the Santa Claus/Father Christmas figure.

The combination of the Victorian age, with its emphasis on the home and the family on the one hand, and American commercialism on the other, was key in developing a child-friendly Santa Claus, who coincidentally could be used as a potent advertising symbol.

Photo courtesy of Wembley Park
In very broad strokes, this is Santa's journey; the exhibition From Saint to Santa offers a much more detailed, thought-provoking and informative account, bringing it to the present day and the foreseeable future, and illustrating some of the pressures that continue to shape the figure of Santa Claus.

As Claudio Giambrone, exhibiton curator and producer puts it: 'This is a story for everyone, young and old, and I hope visitors leave with a better understanding of the enduring symbol of Santa Claus and the joy he brings to people around the world.'