The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus Book

We will not Banish Magic from the World, not while Jolly Old Saint Nicholas keeps the Spirit of Christmas Alive in our Hearts!

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1902) by L. Frank Baum is the classic biography of the legendary man in the red suit ~ Santa Claus.

Child of the Forest

As with most biographies, I enjoyed the chapters on his childhood the best. Santa's story begins in an enchanted forest inhabited by fairies, knooks, ryls, and nymphs ~ immortal and changeless beings who have peopled the forest since the beginning. As a foundling, Santa was nursed by a lioness and then adopted by a wood-nymph. His defining traits of kindness, goodness, and generosity can be traced back to his idyllic childhood among the nymphs in the Forest of Burzee.

"His thoughts and words were sweet and gentle, for the nymphs knew no evil and their hearts were pure and loving" (16-17).

Santa's formative years with the immortal beings also left him with a life-long love and respect for all of nature's creatures. Is it any wonder that living in the forest with the nymphs, Santa would grow up to be a young man who would not kill a tree or crush a flower or even tear up a single blade of grass?

When Santa moved from the Forest of Burzee to the Laughing Valley, he lived in harmony with the valley's other inhabitants ~ the wildflowers and the grass, the cowslips, daffodils, and dandelions, the butterflies and the bees, and the beautiful sacred trees.

"His life among the nymphs who guarded the Forest had taught him that a live tree is sacred, being a created thing endowed with feeling" (38).

Because he would do no violence by plowing the earth, he ate the food the ryls brought him ~ milk, bread, honey, apples and grapes (43).

Santa also knew the language of animals.

"He could sing the songs of the bees, recite the poetry of the wood-flowers and relate the history of every blinking owl in Burzee" (21).

Is it any surprise that when he made toy animals, he used only fur from animals who died naturally?

"Many animals perished in the Forest, from one cause or another, and their fur was brought to Claus that he might cover with it the small images of beasts he made for playthings" (123).

The same is true of the leather used for the reindeers' harnesses.

"This leather was cut from the skins of lions that had reached such an advanced age that they died naturally..." (122-123).

I love Baum's beautiful description of the enchanted forest and the fairy folk who dwell within it. I love the sweet image of Santa in his flower-filled valley "exchanging jokes with the light-hearted butterflies" (41). But most of all I love that Santa Claus is a tree-hugging eco-friendly vegetarian!

Friend of Children

When Santa grew to manhood he left the primeval paradise of the Forest of Burzee for the pastoral beauty of the Laughing Valley. He had learned about the "doom of mankind" (27) and he courageously chose to share it.

As a young man, Santa posed philosophical questions about the meaning of life and about social justice. When Ak, the Master Woodsman, showed him the world outside, he saw other human beings for the first time. He saw suffering and he felt compassion, especially for the children. When Ak explained that man was doomed to toil, grow old, and die, Santa asked what everyone asks in the face of human suffering ~ Why be born? When Ak tells him "to be helpful to the world" (27), Santa sets out to bring joy to world.

We tend to think of Santa primarily as a toymaker and indeed this book includes several chapters on the innovation and development of his toys, but toy making is just the outward sign of Santa's mission. Imagine Santa's reaction upon seeing other human beings for the first time, seeing their hard lives, their suffering, their children's suffering, and then comparing it to his own idyllic childhood. Toy making is just Santa's way of spreading cheer among the most disenfranchised members of human society.

It's easy to forget that children didn't always have the legal protections they have now. In Santa's early days, children had no rights at all. They were exploited for child labor and subjected to child abuse. It was only in 1875 that the world's first organization for child protection was founded ~ the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Before then, children had no official protection. But they had Santa. He befriended them, played with them, listened to them, comforted them. He was always merry, always optimistic. He always had time for them. And the more attention Santa lavished on the children, the more the adults came to realize that their children deserved to be treated better. So the lives of children were considerably improved because of Santa's esteem and devotion.

Once Santa wondered whether he should deliver toys to rich children as well as poor ones. Rich children had wondrous luxuries, he thought, but poor children had nothing to amuse them. He consulted with his foster-mother, the wood-nymph Necile, and with the Fairy Queen, and those wise beings counseled him to give to all children, rich and poor alike. And that is what Santa does, for he knows that rich children are not necessarily happier than poor children.

Folk Saint

"It is possible for any man, by good deeds, to enshrine himself as a Saint in the hearts of the people" (108).

Could anyone doubt that Santa would come to be considered a saint of the people? He devoted his whole life to doing good. He loved children and animals and flowers and trees. In his brotherhood with all of nature's creatures, he resembles Saint Francis of Assisi. In his love of children, he calls to mind Jesus blessing the little ones ~"Let the children come to me" (Matthew 19:14).

So sacred is this work of befriending children that the Mantle of Immortality was bestowed upon him. The mantle was thought to be created in the beginning. If one believes this, and I see no reason not to, it means that the "Supreme Master" knew it would be needed some day (142), knew the world would need Santa Claus.

Baum's book paints a deeper portrait of Santa than just the merry toy maker. Santa has always inhabited two worlds ~ the World of Fairy and the World of Man. A good symbol of this is his home in the Laughing Valley ~ a liminal place between the two worlds. Here he receives help from the fairies of the enchanted forest. Yet here also is the place he performs his labor of love for mankind. He is of both worlds, yet he is also of neither. Although he was nursed by a lioness and raised by a wood nymph, he is neither a forest creature nor a fairy. Although he is a man, he grew up knowing nothing of mankind. Never in the history of the world has there been another such as he. And there never will be. The immortal Santa Claus is in a class by himself.

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus also sparkles with Baum's beautiful writing. Here is a lovely example:

"The air was sharp and frosty and the starlight touched the snowflakes and made them glitter like countless diamonds" (116).

The fairy-like prose is complemented by some of Mary Cowles Clark's charming illustrations. Each of the three sections begins with a full-page black & white illustration of Santa ~ first as a child, then as a young man, and finally as an old man. And each chapter includes marginal illustrations as well. There are nature scenes, woodland creatures, whimsical fairy folk with pointed shoes and wings and antennae, happy children, Christmas trees, and all manner of toys and dolls.

My edition of this book is the 2015 Penguin Christmas Classic in red hardcover with a pretty book jacket and end papers.