Mary Lourdes Bonnici MBA

  DAY 74 — 74 DAYS TO CHRISTMAS Santa’s Sleigh — From Winter Transport to Christmas Icon A cultural history of transport, literature, imagery and festive imagination Mary Lourdes Bonnici MBA | Learning • Knowledge • Growth Introduction Santa’s sleigh brings together practical winter transport and extraordinary Christmas fantasy. Real vehicles travelled on runners over snow; the familiar Christmas version flies through the sky, pulled by reindeer and carrying gifts. Its history is not a single invention. It is a developing combination of folklore, literature, illustration and mass media (Nissenbaum, 1996; Bowler, 2005). This article distinguishes historical evidence from imaginative storytelling and explores why a simple vehicle became such a memorable seasonal symbol. [Embed introductory YouTube video here] Learning objectives and scope Readers will understand how sleighs work, why reindeer became associated with northern travel, how the 1823 poem shaped the familiar story, what la...