History of Santa Claus: Saint or Elf?

St. Nicholas, by Jaroslav Čermák. Image: Wikipedia

HISTORY OF SANTA CLAUS

December 6 is “Saint Nicholas Day.”

The name Santa Claus is a contraction of Saint Nicholas. The German name Sankt Nikolaus can be pronounced San’t(a) ni-KLOuse (sounding like house).

Was he a man, myth, legend, or elf?

Origin of St. Nicholas

He was born in the late 3rd century, perhaps in A.D. 270. Nicholas became a Greek bishop and gained distinction at the councils of the church. He was especially famed for unexpected gifts and later associated with the giving of presents during the season at the end of the year.

“I am Nicholas, a sinner,
Nicholas, servant of Christ Jesus.” 

the old Saint would say. He was imprisoned during the great persecutions of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian in A.D. 303, but was freed by the decree of Emperor Constantine. After that, he served as Bishop of Myra for another thirty years.

He died on December 6, about 343, and the Feast of St. Nicholas is now held on that day.

St. Nicholas Battles Heresy

St. Nicholas slapping Arius at the Council of Nicaea. Image: Wikipedia

Nicholas participated in the famous first ecumenical church Council of Nicaea, called by Constantine in 325 A.D. Legend has it that Nicholas lost his temper and slapped the heretic Arius across the face.

Arius was a presbyter from Alexandria who taught that “there was a time when Christ was not,” declaring the Son of God had a different “essence” or “nature” than the Father, denying Christ’s deity.

But Nicholas was a dedicated “Trinitarian” and one of the signers of the Nicene Creed that asserted the Trinity: God in three persons of the same nature. This was the first council to condemn Arius’ teachings, though it was not the last.

Stories of St. Nicholas

Pawnbroker’s sign, Camden High Street, London. Image: Wikipedia

Many other stories are told of his kindness, such as the story of the poor man and his three daughters. To save the girls from being sold into prostitution for want of dowries, St. Nicholas dropped a bag full of gold down the man’s chimney or through a window. It landed in one of the stockings the eldest daughter had hung up to dry. Now, she could be married.

The other two daughters quickly hung up stockings for St. Nicholas to fill with gold so they, too, could soon be married. By the way, the three golden globes of the pawnshop are attributed to this story.

Santa Claus in Europe

In various cities and countries of Europe, he is the patron saint of sailors, fishermen, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, toymakers, unmarried people, and students. But he seems to have been adopted by the Netherlands as the patron saint of children. On St. Nicholas Eve, they leave their wooden shoes, or sabots, filled with hay for the Saint’s white horse. It is believed that he will fill their shoes with chocolate money.

He is real to children the world over, who await his annual visit under various names such as Kris Kringle, Weihnachtsmann, Father Christmas, Saint Nick, La Befana, and Yule Tomten.

Nowadays, on Saint Nicholas Day, children wait for Saint Nicholas to put a present under their pillow, a boot on their windowsill, or under a Christmas Tree… if they were good. And because he’s “making a list, checking it twice,” Children who behaved badly might expect to receive a twig, a piece of coal, or (when I was a kid) ashes.

Santa Claus in America

When the Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam in the New World – later called New York – they brought with them the traditions of Sinterklass. Early settlements celebrated these traditions along the Hudson River Valley until at least the early 19th century.

In 1809, the American author Washington Irving, under the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker, wrote “A History of New York,” wherein Saint Nicholas, a jolly personage smoking a Dutch pipe, skimmed over the treetops in a wagon and dropped presents down the chimneys.

Santa Claus in Literature

Cover of a 1912 edition of the poem, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. Image: Wikipedia

A few years later, in 1823, Clement C. Moore, a friend of Washington Irving, wrote a poem for his children, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” better known as “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” In the poem, he writes:

“He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf.”

Many are unaware that the term Santa Claus was never used in the poem. However, the reindeer are there, a part of the legend undoubtedly developed in America, probably by Scandinavians in the United States.

Trivia: In the book Author Unknown, Professor Donald Foster argues that Major Henry Livingston Jr. actually wrote it in 1807 or 1808 and published it anonymously, with Moore claiming authorship in 1837.

Depiction of Santa Claus

Merry Old Santa Claus,” Harper’s Weekly, Jan 1, 1881. Image: Wikipedia

During the Christmas season of 1862, the German-born American cartoonist Thomas Nast drew a picture of Santa Claus for Harper’s Weekly during the Civil War. Nast combined his native German traditions of Saint Nicholas with other German folk traditions of elves.

His various pictures of Santa Claus ran through 1866, firmly cementing the image in the American mind. The name Santa Claus also became more familiar to American ears than the German Sankt Niklaus or Dutch Sinterklaas.

Young boy surprising Santa Claus, by Haddon Sundblom for Coca-Cola. Image: Gettyimages/Library of Congress

Finally, in the 1930s, the now-familiar American Santa image solidified. Inspired by “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” artist Haddon Sundblom created Coca-Cola Santa advertisements running for thirty-five years, finally establishing Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture.

This Santa was not an elf but a man – jolly and wearing the now-familiar white fur-trimmed red suit.

There is an alternative view of his history.

Some believe Santa Claus was originally Polish. North Polish.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com

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