The popular author of children's books wrote a story tracing the imagined history of the icon of childhood Christmas dreams, Saint Nicholas.

The Author L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum is most well known for the books he wrote about an imaginary land called Oz. Another one of his fairyland writings was a novella titled The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, which was published two years after the publication of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Like his stories about the Land of Oz, Baum considered this story to be a modern fairy tale. Baum had some strong opinions about what composed a good fairy tale and what should not be included in a fairy tale. One of Baum's objectives when writing his fairy tales was to minimize violence (and other potentially frightening material) and to de-emphasize romantic love. His strong feelings about these topics are reflected in his handling of them in the story of Santa Clause.

The Story of Saint Nick

The writing style for the story of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is similar to that of the Oz books with simple sentences, paragraphs, and themes. The book itself is quite short running to 145 pages of easily readable type. It tells of Claus’s life in three sections Youth, Manhood, and Old Age and these sections are further broken down into chapters.

If you like Baum’s style of story telling in the Oz books, you will find The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus thoroughly enjoyable. His story deftly explains how Santa Claus could be both human and immortal. The story begins with the discovery of the infant Oz by the great Ak, the master woodsman, who is unsure of what to do with this human child that he rescued from lioness Shiegra. The beautiful and rebellious nymph Necile claims the child as her own and decides to rear him. His adopted mother bestows upon him the name Claus, which means ‘little one’ but the Queen of the Fairy’s gives him the formal name of Neclaus, which means “Necile’s Little One.” At this point, Baum takes the opportunity to explain all of Santa’s names in a footnote explaining how both Nicolas and Claus both came from his original name.

Baum explains how upon reaching adulthood, Ak shows Claus his true heritage and Claus decides to live amongst men and to spend his life giving pleasure to children who were helpless and were often cruelly neglected during his lifetime. He decides that this would be a suitable tribute to Ak and to Necile for saving him.

Baum spends the largest part of the novel on the section concerning Claus’s manhood. In it, he fleshes out the evolution of Claus, toys, and how Claus came to make his annual gift-giving spree. The conclusion of the book covers how Claus became immortal. Because the book is a fairy tale, it has a ‘happy’ fairy tale ending.

Conclusion and Recommendations

L. Frank Baum’s book The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is a good choice for anyone young or old who loves fairy tales and who enjoys the ideas of Santa Claus and Christmas. It is an easy book to read, making it ideal for the busy holiday season.

Baum, L. Frank. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. Lowe & B. Hould Publishers. ISBN 0-681-05407-7