A female character introduced as the wife of Santa Claus. She was introduced in the short story "A Christmas Legend" (1849) by James Rees.The idea found its way in several short stories over the following decades until becoming the protagonist of "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride" (1889) by Katherine Lee Bates. Goody is short for "Goodwife" used instead of Mrs. In Bates' poem, Mrs. Claus wheedles a Christmas Eve sleigh-ride from a reluctant Santa in recompense for tending their toy and bonbon laden Christmas trees, thei Thanksgiving turkeys, and their "rainbow chickens" that lay Easter eggs. Once away, Mrs. Claus steadies the reindeer while Santa goes about his work descending chimneys to deliver gifts. She begs Santa to permit her to descend a chimney. Santa grudgingly grants her request and she descends a chimney to mend a poor child's tattered stocking and to fill it with gifts. Once the task is completed, the Clauses return to their Arctic home. At the end of the poem, Mrs. Claus remarks that she is the "gladdest of the glad" because she has had her "own sweet will".
She has since appeared in multiple literature stories, comic books and (less oftenly) in film and television.
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