Why do American kids call Santa Claus "Santa" instead of "Claus" ?

[Maciamo]

In spain we call him "Papá Noel". But i know the santa thing too, probably because we usually watch a lot of american films about christmas. lol

Are those films in English. In France and Belgium everything in dubbed in French, so there is no exposure to English at all for children.

[Nasturtium]

Expediency, ignorance, habit, Anglo Saxon tradition, laziness, or some other reason...a couple thoughts:

First, many American evangelicals seem to be distancing themselves from the whole Christmas/Santa thing either because they see it as a bastardization of a Christian holiday or because of the holiday's association with pre-Christian European "heathen" religions. Full disclosure, before I get crucified (no pun intended) I'm a secular agnostic at best, or possibly a heathen-curious atheist.

The second thought I had is that it may be due to "Claus" sounding a bit too Germanic. Remember, the Germans were the bad guys in the last 2 big wars (for Americans), and who knows? Americans can be pretty silly about such things...remember "freedom fries?" I know my great-grandmother always called herself Pennsylvania Dutch, which I assumed meant she was from Holland. Getting into genetic geneology, I discovered she was actually a first generation American, her parents born in Frankfurt. I think during the first and second world wars, many German American's distanced themselves out of necessity, and who knows, "Claus" may have been sacrificed for the same reason?

Just a couple thoughts...

[willyjp]

As far as Halloween, the "holiday" has become totally secularized and it's meaning entirely forgotten in the US. At least amongst those who haven't been to Mexico for Dia de los Muertos. Once you've experienced that, the silly corruption of the holiday (which of course is just a contraction of "holy day") becomes clear. By the way, why do you Europeans (British at least)refer to "bank holidays?" Worship of money perhaps? (joke! )

[willyjp]

You could be right on about anything having a German flavor. The US underwent a profound "de-germanification" between 1915 and 1918, and folks in your home state of Wisconsin were affected as much as anyplace in the US. Germans made up the largest of all immigrant groups to the US from 1800--1900, and there were MANY places in the US where German was the everyday language of thousands....Milwaukie, Wisconsin being one of the foremost. Franciscan Friar Solanus Casey, a possible candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church, grew up in an Irish family on the Wisconsin frontier of his day. When he failed German in the Benedictine Seminary in Milwaukie, he was ejected with the comment that "no one who couldn't speak fluent German should be a priest in Wisconsin." Fortunately for him, and for the Church, the Franciscans in Chicago took him in!

Once Germany went to war with Britain, even before the "Zimmerman Telegram" affair, it became VERY unfashionable to sound, act or be "German" in this country full of German immigrants and their descendants. It was a profound and rapid cultural shift. But the German-Americans did it very smoothly and they became the least "ethnic" sub-group (after the English, of course) in the Nation. Even to this day, people of German ancestry are probably the least likely to be aware of their national heritage!

[JFWR]

The most obvious reason, even if this is a fairly old thread and so perhaps kind of useless, is the name "Santa Claus" seems to be composed of a first (Santa) and last (Claus) name. This is why Santa Claus' wife is called "Mrs. Claus".

It's sort of like Jesus Christ. Most people probably think that Christ is his last name, as "the" is rarely used in English for Jesus the Christ.