Several literary sources have compiled listings of the “best Santa Claus quotations” of all-time. A frequently mentioned author is Maud McKnight Lindsay of Tuscumbia, Ala., who was a kindergarten teacher and author of scores of children’s stories.
“All the world is happy
when Santa Claus comes,” she wrote in “Santa Claus: A Wonder Story for Little
Children,” which was published in 1913.
To gain a sense of Lindsay’s style, read the end of that story: “Trit-trot, go the little deer, tink, tinkle, ring the bells, O-o-o-o, sing the winds, twinkle, twinkle, shine the stars, and ha! ha! laughs Santa Claus, as he rides over the world to fill the children’s stockings, and to bring beautiful gifts.”
One other quotation that the collectors often attribute to Lindsay is in verse form: “You better watch out You better not cry Better not pout I’m telling you why Santa Claus is coming to town.” The lack of punctuation and sporadic capitalization are curious, and I’ve been unable to uncover a citation for the work.
The same words appear in
the lyrics of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” which were penned in 1932 by
Haven Gillespie, who collaborated with songwriter J. Fred Coots. The tune
begins: “…You better watch out / You better not cry / You better not pout /
I’m telling you why / Santa Claus is comin’ to town.”
Gillespie had dropped out of high school at age 16 to work in the printing trade, starting as a newspaper typesetter in Cincinnati, Ohio. In his early 20s, he moved to New York City and became a journalist.
From there, he started writing lyrics for vaudeville acts. His publisher, Leo Feist, urged him to write a children’s Christmas song “because Gillespie had a good vocabulary for children’s songs.” (“Was that a compliment?” Gillespie always wondered.)
Regardless, 15 minutes later, while riding on a New York City subway train, Gillespie had finished the lyrics to “Santa.”
Did he beg, borrow or steal words from the mouth of Maud Lindsay? She was still living and actively writing when the song debuted in 1934, performed by Eddie Cantor on his national radio show.
No one ever fussed or complained, so perhaps the “quote masters” are mixed up about the origin of “You better watch out….”
In Brooklyn, N.Y., Nicholas A. Ferrell, creator of The New Leaf Journal, has studied Maud Lindsay’s body of work. He recently analyzed her “Santa Claus Wonder Story,” which is now 110 years old. Ferrell urged his readers to delight in her writing and grasp the imagery of the author’s description of the Santa character.
His online posting “An Inquiry into the Nature of Santa Claus,” is dated May 25, 2023. Here’s a glimpse at the picture Lindsay painted:
“Santa Claus dresses in
fur from his head to his heels. His leggings are fur, his coat is fur, and he
wears a fur cap pulled down over his ears, for the winds of the winter are icy cold.”
“Santa Claus’s beard is
as white as the snow, and his cheeks are as red as apples, and his eyes are as
bright as the twinkling stars that look from the sky to see him ride.”
“Santa Claus is old, old
as the hills, but he is strong as a giant, and on his back he carries a pack,
and the pack is full of toys. He has dolls and drums, and balls and tops,
wagons and sleds, tea sets with blue roses painted on them…and all of them are
for little children.”
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