To Do Friday: No, Virginia

New York Observer, The (NY) - Friday, January 6, 2012 Author: Elise Knutsen

The season of St. Nick has left you exhausted. Keeping up the Santa ruse for your little ones has proved terribly tedious: sending letters to the North Pole, stuffing stockings, baking Christmas cookies for Santa’s enjoyment, eating said cookies yourself and pretending to hear the jingle of sleigh bells all seems so laborious now that your children are past kindergarten. Isn’t honesty the best policy, anyway? Today, you’ll shatter the Santa illusion, paving the way for a more civilized gift exchange next year without the exhausting commercial trappings and contrived Christmas lies. The New York Historical Society’s exhibition “The Invention of Santa Claus” postulates that the twinkle-eyed St. Nick we’ve come to associate with the birth of Jesus was, in fact, concocted by scholar Clement Clarke Moore, best known for writing “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Tracing the evolution of the red-suited patron saint through the years, you’ll give your children the gift of the truth (P.S. Jimmie, you’re adopted.) and expose them to early New York history. Cheers to a merry, farce-free Christmas next year!

“It Happened Here: The Invention of Santa Claus,” New York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is $5