Santa Claus and Christmas are so indelibly linked in our minds that it’s hard to fathom that Santa’s role in Christmas is pretty recent. Nevertheless, this much-loved jovial man has made himself rather popular as the comic bearer of gifts on Christmas Eve. Children are fascinated by Santa and stories about him. To cater to that many tales have sprung up or shall we say invented about Santa’s whereabouts and other details of his life so that the kids have some information about what Santa Claus does when he is not busy delivering gifts from home to home.
Of course, it’s common knowledge that Santa Claus lives at North Pole along with Mrs. Claus and his reindeer. Santa’s Grotto is apparently the wonder workshop where Santa personally molds all the delightful Christmas gifts that he distributes over Christmas. The scene may sound familiar to you if you have ever seen one of the sights which were a rage in the 20th century. In department stores, there would always be an artificially carved or created Cavern which would always have an actor dressed like Santa and pretending to be extremely busy at chipping away at gifts and presents.
Children are particularly fond of this story because it fits into the blanks of their imagination so at least it answers the ubiquitous “Where do gifts come from?” query. In the 20th century, the above-mentioned tradition of depicting Santa’s grottos in large department stores was started in London or New York. The Grottos were usually shown as rather large and cave like and besides Santa’s a range of other characters like reindeer and elves too were shown. This was done to attract customers with children.
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