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St. Nicholas and Santa

So where did his name come from?

Everything above refers not to a "Santa Claus", but to a "Saint Nicholas."

What's his story? Remember what we said about the Thomas Nast series of drawings?

"When Nast created his image of Santa Claus he was drawing on his native German tradition of Saint Nicholas, a fourth century bishop known for his kindness and generosity. In the German Christian tradition December 6 was (and is) Saint Nicholas day, a festival day honoring Saint Nicholas and a day of gift giving."

It was not only the Germans that had that tradition, it appears pretty wide spread. Greeks, Italians, Spanish and other Catholics had been celebrating Saint Nicholas for a long time.

Who was this "Saint Nicholas"? Here's the story:

St Nicholas was born in 280 AD, in Patara, a city of Lycia, in Asia Minor. He became the gift giver of Myra. His gifts were given late at night, so that the gift giver's identity would remain a secret. Obviously, he was found out. St Nicholas was eventually named the patron saint of children, sailors, Russia and Greece.

St Nicholas was a Christian priest, who later became a bishop. He was rich and traveled the country helping people, giving gifts of money and other presents. St Nicholas did not like to be seen when he gave away presents, so the children of the day were told to go to sleep quickly or he would not come! Nothing has changed and Santa Claus will not arrive this Christmas unless the children go to sleep early.

Another story is about a poor man who had no money to give to his three daughters on their wedding day. St Nick dropped bags of gold into the stockings which the girls had left to dry by the fire. The sisters found the gold and ever since, children have hung up stockings on Christmas Eve hoping that they will be filled with presents by Christmas morning.

Despite being quite young Nicholas had earned a reputation for kindliness and wisdom. In the year 303, the Roman emperor Diocletian commanded all the citizens of the Roman Empire, which included Asia Minor, to worship him as a god.

Christians believed in one god and one god alone, so their conscience would not allow them to obey the Emperor's order. Angered by their stubbornness, Diocletian warned the Christians that they would be imprisoned. The Emperor carried out the threat and St Nicholas was also imprisoned. For more than five years, St Nicholas was confined to a small cell. In 313, when Diocletian resigned, and Constantine came to power Nicholas was released, and he returned to his post as Bishop of Myra. He continued his good works and became even wiser and more understanding by the time of his death on December 6, 343.

In the eyes of the Catholics, a saint is someone who has lived such a holy life that, after dying and going to heaven, he or she is still able to help people on earth. They often become patron to different groups of people - one such was children and many legends sprang up to explain his presence.

By 450, churches in Asia Minor and Greece were being named in honor of him. By 800, he was officially recognized as the a saint by the Eastern Catholic Church.

In the 1200s, December sixth began to be celebrated as Bishop Nicholas Day in France.

By end of the 1400s, St Nicholas was the third most beloved religious figure, after Jesus and Mary. There were more than 2000 chapels and monasteries named after him.

In the 1500s people in England stopped worshipping St Nicholas (too Catholic for the King's taste), and renamed him Father Christmas. That way the Anglican children could still get presents on Christmas!

How did "Saint Nicholas" become "Santa Claus"?

Several factors contributed to this change:

• Children's pronunciation. Ask any 3 year old today to pronounce "Saint Nicholas" and listen to what it sounds like.
• Early Dutch settlers in New York (once called New Amsterdam) brought their traditions of St Nicholas to the new country. As children from other countries tried to pronounce Sinter Klass, this soon became Santa Klass, which was settled as Santa Claus. The old bishop's cloak with mitre, jewelled gloves and crozier were soon replaced with his red suit and clothing seen in other modern images.
• The "De-Christianizing" of America's history. More and more we distance ourselves from religious influences. Unfortunately, we now lie about the past to justify the present.
• It is not "Politically Correct" to say anything nice about anyone who is important in Christian history. It is "politically safe" to talk about an imaginary myth while ignoring historical fact.
• The First Amendment protects free speech, this we remember. However it also protects the right to worship freely, and this we forget.

Now that you learned so much about Santa Claus, you can go to http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/newsletter/2001/dec14.html to learn about the probably origin of the Christmas Tree!