I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe it’s already December. It seems like 2023 has flown by, and we are now in the throes of the holiday season. For this month’s issue of Missing Pieces, I’ve decided to focus on Theodore Roosevelt, Christmas, and Santa Claus.
The Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library features many records of people sending Christmas wishes to TR and his family. One of my favorites is a 1903 letter from Senator Mark Hanna of Ohio in which Hanna makes note of the children in the White House. At that time, TR’s children ranged in age from Alice (age 19) to Quentin (age 6).
“A Merry Xmas and best wishes for all the Roosevelts. I envy you in having little folks who yet believe in Santa Claus.”
In addition to Christmas wishes, the digital library also includes a number of cartoons featuring TR as Santa Claus. In one 1904 cartoon, TR is depicted as St. Nick gathering gifts that are labeled as offices and appointments that the president oversaw, such as “Consulship,” “Secretary of the Navy,” and “Governorship of Philippines.”
As the title of the cartoon, “Santa Claus elect preparing for Christmas” indicates, Roosevelt intended to dispense patronage posts when he was inaugurated “in his own right” for his second term on March 4, 1905.
Another entertaining cartoon from 1908 depicts a rotund Santa Roosevelt putting “liar” Christmas cards into “editors stocking[s].” Cartoonist Nelson Harding uses this cartoon to comment on TR’s ire toward Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World and other editors and publishers TR called “liars” for reporting information TR considered to be false.
Source: Christmas cards! Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Besides cartoonists depicting TR as Santa Claus, one three-year-old boy, Robert F. Biggs, actually thought TR might have been like St. Nick until the Robert’s mother explained that TR was a real person. Kittie Victoria Giffin, a nearby resident, relates the story to TR in a 1911 letter.
“One day quite recently, he inquired of his mother, who ‘Roosevelt’ was. She explained to him as well as she could. He gave a deep sigh, and said ‘All-right Sir! I’m going to be just like him. I thought may-be he wasn’t real, but was something like Santa Claus or God. I’ll go hunting with him, and next time he comes to Green Valley, I will shake hands with him.’”
As fun as these cartoons and anecdotes depicting TR as Santa Claus are, what originally inspired me to focus on depictions of TR as Santa Claus was reading through Theodore Roosevelt: Hero to His Valet.
In the book, James E. Amos, TR’s personal attendant who later became one of the first Black FBI agents, reflects on TR and provides many enlightening—and sometimes entertaining—anecdotes, including talking about TR’s role as the jolly old fellow in the chapter on TR and children.
“For many years it was [Roosevelt’s] custom to act as Santa Claus at Public School No. 10 in Oyster Bay, where his own children went to school before he became President. He always had a great fondness for that institution and at these Christmas celebrations would make a little address to the children. My own daughter went to that same school.”
Two others also mentioned TR playing Santa Claus for the local school in Oyster Bay, including Oyster Bay resident Albert Loren Cheney and longtime friend of the family, journalist Jacob Riis.
Cheney succinctly states, “Mr. Roosevelt took the keenest delight in acting as Kris Kringle each Christmas time at the Cove School.” Riis, however, provides more details:
“Mr. Roosevelt made a good Santa Claus, never better than when he was just home from the war, with San Juan hill for a background. That time he nearly took the boys’ breath away.”
We know TR as many things—Rough Rider, conservationist, and president—but thinking of him as playing Santa Claus to bring Christmas cheer to children adds yet another dimension of understanding to this multi-faceted man. Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!
Christmas movies were a little after TR’s time, but they play a big role in many family’s Christmas traditions nowadays. My new favorite is Klaus, which I would highly recommend if you haven’t seen it before. What’s your favorite Christmas movie? Cast your vote in the poll below.
I could see TR being a very convincing Santa!