Much like his supernatural hero counterpart Superman, Santa Claus was discovered as an abandoned infant. That is, according to The Life and Adventures Of Santa Claus by author of The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum. With its elaborations and much added detail the 1902 book went a long way to popularising the legend of Santa.

The origin story of Santa takes place in the Forest of Burzee and nearby lands. Baum pictures the forest as a mighty and grand forest, with “big tree-trunks, standing close together, with their roots intertwining below the earth and their branches intertwining above it;” a place of “queer, gnarled limbs” and “bushy foliage” where the rare sunbeams cast “weird and curious shadows over the mosses, the lichens and the drifts of dried leaves.” Among the “giant oak and fir trees” are clearings where “the grass grew green and soft as velvet.”  The Forest is populated by Fairies, ruled by an unnamed Fairy Queen (in later books named either Lulea ), along with Nymphs, Gnomes, Pixies, and species of beings invented by Baum consisting of Ryls, Knooks, and Gigans.

You can continue reading the entire book here.