Jolly Ol’ St. Nick Could Hold a Grudge : Lore: A multicultural display of Santas at Brea Mall shows many faces of the legendary gift-giver.

When designer Jo Kenney was asked to create holiday displays for Brea Mall, she decided to inject a little culture into Christmas.

She conducted a scholarly search of legends and literature to see how the roly-poly character we call Santa Claus appeared in other cultures, other times.

Her finished displays, positioned throughout the mall, feature six multicultural “St. Nicks,” each elaborately dressed and cast in fanciful vignettes to illustrate the customs of other countries.

“It’s not your typical clapping bears and candy canes,” said Kenney, the morning after a sleepless night spent touching up the exhibits.

The displays manage to be both educational and engaging. Oversize storybooks give a brief synopsis of each St. Nick.

“Santa Claus is not a historical character but a compilation of legends,” Kenney said.

Through her research, she discovered that not all of the St. Nick figures were like the jolly old elf cherished today.

“Legends of Santa as a gift-giving character have existed in every society for centuries and centuries,” she said. “Sometimes they’re spirits, and sometimes they’re female.”

She found some Claus characters to be downright macabre. The punishments they doled out to naughty girls and boys were far more severe than finding a lump of coal in one’s sock Christmas morn.

“These were very dark stories,” Kenney said.

Other cultures did not see Santa as quite so chubby. In the Americanized version, Claus has put on weight.

Still, Kenney was impressed with the similarities between characters who came from different cultures.

“Across the world we all create the same gods and heroes,” she said. Different people “thought it was important to give children exposure to the concept of gift-giving.”

Today’s Santa Claus best resembles the red-suited character created by Thomas Nast in his poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” The verse was inspired by a man traveling home in his sleigh a few nights before Christmas Eve. Nast, hearing the sleigh bells, conjured up a jolly, bewhiskered fellow dressed all in red with soft white fur and shiny black boots.

Instead of portraying “Ol’ St. Nick” in his traditional setting--driving his sleigh or shimmying down a chimney--Kenney has Santa looking like a couch potato. He’s relaxing in a lounge chair wearing a plaid robe, with a pair of slippers on his feet.

“Father Frost” epitomizes the rich Christmas legends from Russia during the time of the czars. He is perhaps the exhibit’s most beautiful creation, clad in a blue velvet cape dripping with pearls, with a tall fur hat and iridescent white beard. Legend has it he moved about the countryside as quiet as the snowflakes, painting windowpanes in ice much like Jack Frost.

Father Frost had a gentle nature. He cared for the forest animals, protecting them as they slept in caves and burrows during the freezing Russian winters. Like today’s Santa Claus, he traveled with a sleigh full of goodies, but instead of Nintendo and Barbie, he brought sweetmeats, fruits, ribbons and toy soldiers for good children. Bad children received lumps of coal and birch rods.

“Father Christmas” has been a figure in English lore for more than 800 years, and his appearance has changed with the times. Kenney depicts him during the time of Henry VIII, dressing him in a rich green velvet cloak, jeweled necklace and feathered cap.

“Santa Klausen” represents a mix of legends from Europe. He wears a Bavarian costume and looks as if he just stepped out of the Black Forest. A forerunner to jolly old St. Nick, his origins remain a mystery.

While most St. Nicks are purely fiction, some were based on historic figures.

A thousand years ago, “King Wenceslaus” was a Bohemian prince who never became king. He turned down the throne out of humility and went about the countryside doing good deeds for the poor, bringing feasts to the hungry. Kenney shows him setting out on a country road, looking regal in a hooded traveling outfit of purple and red velvet with bright jewels.

The mall created its own version of a modern Santa called “St. Slick,” a surfing Southern California Santa who wears sunglasses and a fluorescent surfing shirt. He rides a VW Thing with a surfboard and Christmas tree in back.

“He’s a little slimmer than your normal Santa,” said Susan Barden, marketing director for Brea Mall.

Kenney, an Atlanta-based consultant for KB2 Design Planning Inc., was hired by the owners of Brea Mall, Corporate Property Investors of New York, to create the display. Brea Mall is one of four malls she decorated this season.

“I put together ornaments during the summer,” Kenney said. “My house looks like a Christmas shop.”

She decided Brea Mall’s configuration of five wings would be perfect for setting up individual stages for the St. Nicks. She worked a year on the project, enlisting craftsmen to create the St. Nicks and companies to make the sets and scenery.

“The sophistication of the market allowed us to do something that wasn’t cutesy,” she said.

The St. Nick exhibit will only be seen at the Brea Mall, and will remain in place until Jan. 1. It will return each holiday season for four or five more years.