The Real St. Nicholas and the Origin of ‘Santa Claus’

Santa Claus believers can rejoice to know that, technically, he is a real person.

Technically.

St. Nicholas was born in 270 A.D. in the village of Patara, in what was known then as Asia Minor—the region we now call Turkey.

Having inherited wealth from his parents, who died while he was still a youth, Nicholas was inspired to follow the command of Jesus: “Sell all you have and give to the poor.”

Young Nicholas lavished gifts upon the needy, and developed a reputation for holiness. According to tradition, he would often secretly place money in the empty shoes of the poor, in order to avoid being detected.

His biographer, Michael the Archimandrite, tells how the saint learned of a family with three beautiful daughters who had fallen on hard times.

The father of the family could not afford a marriage dowry for his daughters, which meant they were in danger of turning to prostitution to support themselves.

To prevent this, Nicholas sought to relieve the family by hurling a bag of gold through their window at night. The first daughter had a dowry, and was married off.

Nicholas repeated this charity in secret on another night, and the second daughter was able to be married.

The third time, the father of the family lay in wait to find out the identity of his benefactor, and ambushed Nicholas while he was supplying the third bag of gold.

His reputation for holiness spread, and while still a young man Nicholas was made bishop of Myra. This was during the reign of Diocletian, noted for his persecution of Christians. Nicholas was imprisoned, tortured, and eventually exiled.

He was noted for performing miracles, and is said to once have calmed a violent storm on the ocean, preserving the lives of the voyagers who were caught in it.

For this reason, he is the patron saint of sailors.

St. Nicholas was not always jolly, though. He participated in the the Council of Nicea, where he is reputed to have slapped the notorious heretic, Arius.

St. Nicholas died in the year 343; he was canonized over a millennium later by Pope Eugene IV in the year 1546.

From Sinterklaas to Santa Claus

How did the ascetic, heretic-punching St. Nicholas become ‘Santa Claus?’ It is a relatively new phenomenon, beginning in 19th century America.

The Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas dates back to the Middle Ages. Children were given gifts, often placed in wooden shoes, on Dec. 5, the night before St. Nicholas’s feast day.

Sinterklaas was often depicted dressed in red bishop’s robes and mitre, and sporting long white hair and beard.

This tradition was exported to the American colonies when vast numbers of Dutch immigrants flocked to New Amsterdam, which we now call New York.

In 1821 a little book called “The Children’s Friend” was published, featuring drawings of a jolly old man who came from the North Pole on Christmas Eve, delivering presents to good children, and a black birch rod to the parents of bad children.

The Santa Claus fable was further cemented two years later when the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”—now known as “The Night Before Christmas”—was published.

The poem became a cultural wildfire, and inspired artistic portrayals of Santa Claus as a chubby, red-cheeked, bearded man wearing a red suit.

As the whimsical idea became more and more popular, advertising companies began to pick up on it, notably Coca-Cola in 1931. Santa began to make a regular appearance on the cover of the popular magazine The Saturday Evening Post.

As the iconic image of Santa Claus has taken hold in the popular imagination, good St. Nicholas has not been forgotten. His feast day is still celebrated on Dec. 6 by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and other Christian denominations every year.

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children, sailors, and the unmarried.