Who is Santa?

Santa Claus. Father Christmas. St Nicholas. You know the bloke we're talking about – jolly, white beard, North Pole. So why the three names? Because all three were once completely different characters.

Let's start with the only one who actually existed. A long way from the North Pole sits the town of Demre on the southern coast of Turkey. Back in the day – the third century day, to be precise – Demre was called Myre, and it was here that Nicholas lived and worked. Back then, the area was a Roman colony where local bishop Nicholas had a reputation for being generous and pious, and for standing up for the rights of those suffering injustice. It seems likely that his family was involved in fishing or boats, as he later became the patron saint of sailors. Unusually for a saint, Nick lived into his 70s, dying in 343AD without suffering a hideous death at the hands of non-believers – the usual path to sainthood. Perhaps his unusual old age explains why medieval images always show him sporting a white beard, a marked contrast to his bright red bishop's robes.

One often-quoted legend tells of how St Nick deposited gold in the house of a poor man. Rather than embarrass him by knocking at the door, St Nick climbed onto the roof and dropped the gold down the chimney. (Chimney, white beard, red outfit... ring any jingle bells?) After his death, St Nick’s bones were stolen and taken to Italy, where they now reside in the cathedral in Bari. Studies on the bones by a British university suggest that St Nicholas – if the bones are indeed his – was under five feet tall, with a broken nose.

He remains the patron saint of Greece, sailors, children, thieves and the falsely accused. His Saint's Day, 6 December, is celebrated in many countries, including Germany, Portugal, eastern France and the Netherlands.

Pass the Dutchy

The Dutch connection is what leads us to our second figure. The Dutch for St Nicholas is the vaguely familiar-sounding Sinterklass. The Dutch have many traditions surrounding the fellow, including gift giving and leaving out a carrot for his horse. A few hundred years ago, on the other side of the Atlantic, many Dutch traditions were being maintained in a city formerly known as New Amsterdam (now called New York) – where Sinterklass had begun to be called St A Claus.

Then, on 23 December 1823, a poem was published in the Troy Sentinel in New York: ‘Account of a Visit From St Nicholas’. The poem began ‘Twas the night before Christmas...’ And so our modern conception of Santa Claus was born. So different is it from the Dutch tradition that the Netherlands maintains the two as entirely separate characters.

Merry gentleman

Father Christmas, on the other hand, is an English tradition. Not a gift-giver (and dressed in a green suit), Sir, Lord or Father Christmas was the embodiment of the Christmas season as it was in the early 17th century, representing merriment and feasting once banned by the puritans. The description of the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol* is probably his most famous appearance (with a red beard, fur-lined green robe and carrying a horn of plenty). In the mid Victorian era however, as word of Santa Claus spread from the United States, the two figures were merged into one.

Not everyone is happy about the amalgamation. ‘The real St Nicholas provides an antidote to a holiday season that has become focused on consumption,’ says Carol Myers of the St Nicholas Center in Michigan, USA. ‘He helps us emphasise giving rather than getting. He was completely motivated by love for God and his desire to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ,’ she adds. She began the Center (of which the UK's St Nicholas Society is an affiliate) to remind people that there was ‘a real person of faith behind Santa Claus’.

Not-so merry gentleman

Her dislike of Daddy C is nothing compared to Tom Flynn's. Author of The Trouble With Christmas and a member of the Council for Secular Humanism, Flynn delights in shouting 'humbug' down on Mr Claus, calling him ‘a daft amalgam of Christian, pagan, and commercial kitsch.’ And that's just for starters. ‘The Santa myth compels parents and other adults to lie to children,’ he continues. ‘We're in effect running a huge child psychology experiment in which most adolescents will be subjected to the realisation that one of the most beloved elements of their childhoods was an elaborate parental fib.

‘The Santa myth encourages a lazy parenting style that relies on fear and greed. And the Santa myth torments poor children. If gifts come from Santa, not from one's family, then kids growing up poor have no way to explain why kids from wealthier families get more toys than they do. Too many wind up concluding it's because the richer kids are better people than they are.’ Phew. Don't even get him started on the baby Jesus.

So there you have it – saint, sinner, Father or misspelling, the story of the seasonal burglar is far from a straightforward one. For evidence of this, go no further than Demre, home of the original St Nicholas. In 2005, a statue of a pious St Nicholas was removed from his pedestal in the centre of the town – and replaced with a red-suited plastic Santa Claus. Ho ho ho.

Fact: Can’t beat the real thing

Coca Cola did not invent Santa's uniform. Yes, in 1931 the illustrator Haddon Sundblom drew a number of ads featuring a red-and-white robed Santa. But in 1925, White Rock Mineral Water showed a similarly dressed Mr Claus sitting down and taking a drink. In fact, Santa had been portrayed this way since 1885, and it was what was by then the standard Claus outfit that Coca Cola put him in. Rudolph, however, was indeed created by a department store called Montgomery Ward as a commercial gimmick.

Fact: Fast food?

Reindeers – caribou in the USA – are a member of the deer family, part of the only deer genus where both male and female have antlers. They exist mostly in Scandinavia, with some herds now in Scotland, Greenland and Canada. In much of Scandinavia, reindeer meat is a common delicacy – you can even buy cans of it at Santa Claus’s Office in Lapland.

Disclaimer!

Some people in this article suggest that Santa is not real. In the name of free speech, we’ve printed their views. And now we’re off to write our letters and bake some mince pies for the big man.

Comments

(All comments will need to be approved before they will be shown on this page)