Santa will once again be spreading holiday cheer aboard a fire truck beginning Monday, Dec. 8.

The Murphy Fire Department will soon be helping Santa Claus spread holiday cheer by giving him a tour of most neighborhoods next month.

Santa will depart at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 8, and will continue weeknights until his tour is finished.

He won’t be stopping or going down dead-end streets, private roads or areas with construction, but children are encouraged to   listen for the sirens to announce his arrival. You can also track his location and progress on the GIS map on murphytax.org.

In addition to Murphy, many fire departments across the country have effectively “adopted” Santa as a seasonal mascot.

Many volunteer and municipal departments make December “Santa runs,” escorting him through neighborhoods on top of an engine to wave at families, toss candy or collect toys.

The practice is believed to date from about 1950, when an early mention of Santa on a fire engine was reported by the Santa Paula (California) Chronicle in a story about the local Christmas parade. A similar mention was reported about the same time in Philo, Illinois.

The character of Santa stems from Saint Nicholas, a Christian bishop known for gift-giving in the fourth century. His story was merged over generations with the Dutch Sinterklaas and European Father Christmas traditions.

The popular perception of Santa as “chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,” is based largely on an anonymous poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” published Dec. 13, 1823, in the Troy (New York) Sentinel.

The poem, better known by its opening line “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” was later attributed Clement Clarke Moore, a professor at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City.

The poem was the first description of Santa’s sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer. Rudolph, with his nose so bright, did not appear until 1939, when copywriter Robert L. May invented the character for a children’s pamphlet published by Montgomery Ward.

In 1948, May persuaded his brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, to write words and music for the story. Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore turned down the opportunity to sing it, but Gene Autry gave voice to the song in 1949 and it became the hit we know today.

But Rudolph was not Marks’ only achievement. He was a prolific songwriter specializing in tunes with a Christmas theme including “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas.”

The image of the familiar department store Santa was solidified by illustrator Thomas Nast’s drawings for Harper’s Weekly in the 1860s.

By the late 1800s, Macy’s and other retailers hired men in costume to greet shoppers or entertain their children.

Although the color of Santa’s regalia has included brown and green, red had become the popular hue into the 20th century.

When Coca-Cola hired illustrator Haddon Sundblom to create holiday ads in 1931, he continued the established depiction, serving to cement our image of a bewhiskered Santa in his red suit with a bag full of toys.

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