When was Santa Claus first spotted in San Luis Obispo?
When did Santa Claus first visit San Luis Obispo? The most relevant document I can find indicates it was December 1874.
But first, a little background.
According to the History channel website, a monk born near Myra, now in Turkey, in about A.D. 280 was sainted for his good deeds.
St. Nicholas became known as a protector of children and sailors. By the Renaissance, he was the most popular saint in Europe, especially the Netherlands, and his feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, Dec. 6.
Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal minister, wrote a poem for his three daughters, “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas,” that ws first published in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on Dec. 23, 1823.
Most people call the poem by its first line, “ ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Moore’s imagery captured imaginations with its “right jolly old elf” and named eight reindeer.
Those eight flying reindeer could have been borrowed from an ancient myth. Norse mythology features the god Odin bearing gifts while flying his eight-legged white horse Sleipnir at the winter solstice.
Dutch American settlements such as New York were fertile ground for the tradition of Santa Claus to take root.
Sharp-quilled political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew Santa Claus as early as 1863, when Father Christmas was bolstering morale among Union troops. Nast also depicted Santa Claus in 1881 for Harper’s Weekly.
Reindeer flying across the country in 1873 to San Luis Obispo would have found children who had never seen Santa Claus.
At the time, San Luis Obispo merchant Max Pepperman advertised 22 years of experience in the jewelry business. He also sold watches, clocks, sewing machines and spectacles at his Curiosity Shop.
In Dec. 20, 1873, he advertised in The Tribune: “Max. Pepperman Having dissolved his connection with the far-famed Santa Claus, and started on his own account, at his old stand, Monterey Street, San Luis Obispo, and having lately visited by himself and agents, the principal marts of trade, is now enabled to offer for sale an entirely new supply of goods in his line of business …”
The graphic was an empty square, surrounded by dotted lines with the note, “This space will be filled next week.”
The following year on Nov. 28, 1874, under “New Advertisements,” Pepperman provided a drawing of his former business partner, Mr. Claus. This is the first image I have found of Santa Claus in San Luis Obispo.
The drawing depicts a jolly man with a clay pipe, slouch hat, wide belt and boots, pictured as he’s about to go down the chimney with a sack of toys. Two reindeer and a sleigh are parked on the roof.
The illustration is not refined. The face is bearded and smiling but square and similar to stereotypical drawings of Irishmen from that era. He is stocky but not rotund. A mandolin and dolls can be seen spilling out of the sack.
In the rhyming advertising copy, Pepperman reveals his sense of humor: “Watches at least twice a day are right.”
The engraving was durable, serving for many years in Pepperman’s Tribune advertising columns. The engraving even outlived the person who commissioned it.
Born in Ostrow, Prussia, Pepperman died July 2, 1879, at age 43. He is buried with many Jewish pioneer settlers in the Beth David section of the San Luis Cemetery.
Santa, however, kept showing up.
The same engraving shows up with a holiday ad in The Tribune for Goodrich & Throop’s in November 1879.
The Dec. 15, 1906, Morning Tribune front page features another Santa Claus driving a newfangled automobile, delivering presents to Hill’s Bazaar.
Economy Drug Store pressed Santa Claus into service, ditching the stocking cap for an army field hat as he salutes during World War II in the Dec. 11, 1941, Telegram-Tribune.
Santa Claus has become a staple of advertisers. Coca-Cola first featured him in advertising in the 1930s. Now he’s everywhere, from animated television specials to movies and shopping malls.
But it was Prussian jeweler Max Pepperman who first brought Santa Claus streaking across the night sky to San Luis Obispo.
