Saint Nicolas, Le Noël, New Media for New Characters

At the end of the 19th century, several magazines placed themselves under the authority of religious figures in the same way as their predecessors, during the Enlightenment, did with Mentor. Saint Nicolas, inspired by the American St. Nicholas: Scribner’s Illustrated Magazine for Girls and Boys and edited by Delagrave, is still discretly religious. It insists on the kindness and generosity of the saint, and encourages its readers to write. The spirit of Le Noël is very different. Its readers are also invited to write, but with a militant purpose. There, Christmas is not represented, like today, as a time of abundance. It values the austerity of the origins of christianity. It tries to restaure this glorious past with the modern tools of the press.