Santa Claus (NYC, 1773)

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(OED)
Santa Claus
Orig. U.S.

[a. Du. dial. Sante Klaas (Du. Sint Klaas), Saint Nicholas: see NICHOLAS.]

    a. In nursery language, the name of an imaginary personage, who is supposed, in the night before Christmas day, to bring presents for children, a stocking being hung up to receive his gifts. Also, a person wearing a red cloak or suit and a white beard, to simulate the supposed Santa Claus to children, esp. in shops or on shopping streets. Also transf., fig., attrib., and ellipt. as Santa.
  Now virtually synonymous with Father Christmas.

  1773 N.Y. Gaz. 26 Dec. 3/1 Last Monday the Anniversary of St. Nicholas, otherwise called St. A Claus, was celebrated at Protestant-Hall. 1808 Salmagundi 25 Jan. 407 The noted St. Nicholas, vulgarly called Santaclausof all the saints in the kalendar the most venerated by true hollanders, and their unsophisticated descendants.

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A friend at work teaches a class on New York City history. He's inviting guest lecturers and the first guest lecturer is me.

It's all about "giving something back," so I'm going to tell the class that all their work will be ignored for twenty years, their co-ops are going bankrupt and they're losing their homes, their parents will die of long and painful illnesses, all their children will have autism, and they'll spend the rest of their lives adjudicating New York City parking tickets in a little room without air. Maybe not.

He told me that he's now doing the Dutch period in New York, so here is the Dutch New York OED antedating of "Santa Claus." It appears to be the same New York item, dated two days earlier in the Connecticut Journal?


(EARLY AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS)
December 24, 1773    Connecticut Journal
New-York, December 20

Headline: New-York, December 20;
Paper: Early American Newspapers;   Date: 1773-12-24;   Iss: 323;   Page: [3];

Last Monday the Anniversary of St. Nicholas, otherwise called _St. a Claus_, was celebrated at Protestant-Hall, at Mr. Waldon's, where a great Number of the Sons of that ancient Saint celebrated the Day with great Joy and Festivity.