The Real Santa Clause Revealed

The real Santa Clause has a name. It’s Nicholas, but his friends just called him Nick. He became known in his community for his generosity to the poor and down hearted. He gave money as a helping hand-up and presents to lift spirits. He would eventually be canonized by the Pope in 1446 A.D. So now he is commonly known as Old St Nick. While his first act of philanthropy involved a nightmarish situation, let's first start with his beginnings.

Nicholas was born c. 260 A.D. in Petara, the capital of Lycia in Turkey. Paul stopped at its Mediterranean harbor to change ships on route to Jerusalem as part of his third missionary journey (Acts 21:1-2). Nicholas was the son of a wealthy Christian merchant. However, both his parents died of the plague when he was very young. Still, he remained a Christian and as a young man made pilgrimages to religious sites in Judea and Egypt. At this time in history, most people believed in a pantheon of 360 different pagan gods. To believe in only one God was a Jewish custom and socially unacceptable. To believe that all other gods were false was a blasphemy worthy of death. Thus, Rome eventually issued a decree that this new faith originally called The Way was now illegal. Persecution of Christians began in 250 A.D. under emperor Decius. So the life of Nicholas, a devout believer in Jesus, was under constant threat.

While in his twenties, Nicholas heard of a local man who had become financially ruined. The man, who had three daughters, was now desperate to have them all married to relieve some of his financial strain. The problem was, because he was now impoverished, he was unable to offer a worthy prospective husband a dowry. In his despair, he was considering having his daughters become courtesans in order to survive. Nicholas heard of this situation and decided on a remedy. Late one night, while passing the man’s home, he threw a purse containing some gold coins through the open window. The man saw this as a miracle of God and the eldest daughter could now be married. Then Nicholas performed this act of kindness a second time so that the middle daughter would be saved from the sex trade. However, the father now realized that some person was providing the dowry money. So, he stayed up all night in order to see who his benefactor was. The father eventually caught Nicholas in the act and thanked him profusely for his generosity. Nicholas pleaded with the man to keep the gifts he gave to his daughters a secret. The man promised he would not publicly reveal his identity. But the father later changed his mind and the word spread far and wide concerning Nicholas’ benevolent nature. Thus began the legend of Nicholas as a model of the generous Christian quietly helping his fellow man in need. It was also said that on Christmas Eve, Nicholas would go into the poverty stricken neighborhoods. There he would look for little shoes left outside on the door stoop. He would then put a small coin in those shoes with the understanding that the child could buy their only piece of candy for the year. Nicholas would eventually be ordained bishop of Myra, a major Lycian city east of Patara. Myra was another port where Paul changed ships on his journey to Rome to be tried for causing the Jewish populations to riot wherever he preached (Acts 27:5). 

 In 304 A.D. an edict was issued by Rome that all Christians were required to make a public sacrifice to one of the gods or face imprisonment and or torture. This occurred because pagan religious leaders were concerned that Christianity was causing their worshippers to abandon their faith in the gods and thus their tithing contributions were diminishing. Also, the refusal to worship other gods was considered an offense that would eventually bring divine judgement on the country. But in June of 313 A.D., Emperor Constantine issued an edict that guaranteed religious freedom throughout the empire. It also restored all property confiscated from Christian churches and made Christianity a legitimate religion. The last we hear of Nicholas is his being listed as an attendee along with approximately three hundred other bishops at the Ecumenical Council meeting held in Nicaea, Turkey in 325 A.D. 

Nickolas died on December 6^th 330 A.D. It was then that his memory began to be venerated in Myra through the construction of a church where his remains were entombed. This date also became an annual celebration in which people gave gifts to one another. This tradition was officially moved by the church in 336 A.D. from December 6^th to December 25^th as it seemed more in keeping with the visit of the Magi who gave gifts to the baby Jesus on this day. Nicholas became the patron saint of children and all thing nautical probably because he was the bishop of the important port city of Myra.

In 1087, the bones of Nicholas were stolen from his sarcophagus in Myra and installed in the new Cathedral of St Nicholas in Bari, Italy. When this church was restored in the 1950’s, the skull of Nicholas was x-rayed.

 In 2014, the images of his skull were used to reconstruct his face using 3D technology. The results was a man in his 60’s with a long beard, square jaw and a broken nose probably cause by torture due to his resolute faith in Christ.

So, while Nicholas was not the holly, jolly saint remembered once a year at Christmas time, he was a devoted follower of Christ who lived a holy life of faith, generosity, bravery and service to his fellow men. In these ways, he has inspired generations of people to follow his example of performing random acts of kindness all year long. 

Traditions of Santa Clause Today

Because America is made up of immigrants from around the world, it is understandable that America would merge many of these international traditions into the ones we know today.

The name Santa Clause first appeared in a New York newspaper in 1773. The first drawing of Santa in a sleigh pulled by reindeer and giving presents to children was in 1821. On December 23^rd 1823, an anonymous poem was published in an Old Lyme Connecticut newspaper titled “The Night Before Christmas”. It would soon be discovered that it was written by a resident named Clement Clark Moore. He had written the poem for his children, but all who heard it encouraged him to have it publish. In the poem, he referred to Santa as an elf riding in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer that he gave names to. In 1853, an article was written which told children to hang their stocking on the mantel as Santa enters a house by coming down the chimney. In 1857, Harper’s Bazaar informed us that Santa had elves that helped him in a workshop. In 1863, a cartoon in Harper’s Weekly showed Santa living in Santa Claussville N.P. (North Pole). In 1902, Frank Baum, the author of the “Wizard of Oz” wrote a story in which Santa and his reindeer would jump from roof to roof while delivering presents. It was in 1924 that Santa first appears in the Macey’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The definitive description of a portly and jolly spectacled Santa, dressed in a red fur suit with white cuffs, black belt and boots, was created by the Coca-Cola Company in 1930.

In 1939, the Montgomery Ward Department Store invented Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as part of a Christmas ad campaign. Rudolph’s story was published in a small illustrated booklet that was given out as a free gift to children visiting Santa. It was the singing cowboy Gene Autry that immortalized Rudolph with his recording in 1940. And it was somewhere in America that the tradition of leaving Santa milk and cookies, and Rudolph a carrot, first began.