From Smithsonian Magazine's Paleofuture blog:
Postcard showing “Santa Claus of the Future” from 1908 (Source: Novak Archive)
Some people are up in arms over a recent update to Santa Claus
that excised his smoking habit. However you feel about Santa losing his
pipe, let me assure you that this won’t be the last time that Santa
gets a makeover. It’s easy for some people to forget that every
generation has “updated” Santa to fit with the times — or in some cases
to fit with the future.
As the 1800s gave way to the 1900s, many Americans felt like perhaps
Santa Claus needed a new way of getting from house to house. Since the
early 19th century, old Saint Nick had been using a sleigh and reindeer
to deliver his presents. But by the 1890s some Americans thought an automobile
would be a more modern form of transportation for the jolly old man.
However, some illustrators didn’t think that the automobile was quite
modern enough and wanted to blast Santa into the future with his very
own flying machine.
The postcard above (sent in 1908) shows Santa smoking his pipe in his
flying machine and dropping a doll down some lucky kid’s chimney.
A
boy dreams of the radio parts Santa will bring him in his flying
machine in the Dec 1922 issue of Science and Invention (Source: Novak
Archive)
The December 1922 issue of Science and Invention magazine
included a list of the best radio parts to buy your little “radio bug.”
The list included an illustration of a young boy dreaming about Santa
Claus soaring through the sky in his flying machine. That large aerial
sitting behind Santa lets us know that he’s definitely hip to the latest
technology of the Roaring Twenties.
Santa’s flying machine in the Dec 22, 1900 Duluth Evening Herald
(Source: Minnesota Historical Society microfilm archive)
The December 22, 1900 issue of the Duluth Evening Herald in
Duluth, Minnesota ran a page claiming that Santa’s reindeer would be
put out of work soon as he skims over the tops of houses in his flying
machine....MORE
