Santa Claus - His Story

The Lord of Misrule's Christmas Guide
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Santa Claus - His Story

There are dozens of names and millions of images depicting Santa Claus - each generation regarding him slightly differently - but the origins for Santa Claus go back to a real man: St Nichols of Myra.

St Nicholas was born in Myra (in modern day Turkey) in about 300 A.D. The only child of a wealthy family, Nicholas was orphaned as a young boy when his parents were taken by the plague. Raised by monks, Nicholas became a priest at the tender age of 17 and stories soon started to abound of his generosity and kindness, especially towards children. He became the bishop of Myra and, after his death, his grave became a shrine renowned throughout the Christian world.

In 1807, Italian sailors stole his remains and took them back to the port of Bari in Italy where they remain to this day in the basilica of San Nicola.

By the Middle Ages, Nicholas had been made a Saint and, given his reputation for being both kind and generous, was adopted as the patron saint of Russia and Greece, as well as for many charities, guilds and cities, and many churches were dedicated in his name.

Following the Reformation, Nicholas’ popularity waned throughout Europe as the new Protestant groups broke away from the traditions and saints of the Catholic church. Instead of one gift-giver, different countries found names for their own gift-giver: Father Christmas in the UK, Pere Noel in France, Christmas Man (Weihnachtsmann) in Germany, Nisse in Norway, Grandfather Frost in Russia, and Sinterklaas in the Netherlands.

Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (now New York) took the tradition of Sinterklaas with them to America in the 17th century and Sinterklaas was rapidly accepted by the English-speaking majority there under the anglicised name of Santa Claus and his own legend became mixed with Nordic folktales about a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good ones with gifts.

The Santa we know today was largely inspired in 1823 by one man, Clement Clarke Moore, in one poem, ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ in which he described St Nicholas as "chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf". Moore not only described Santa, he also set out the flying reindeer and the concept of Santa coming down the chimney on Christmas Eve and dolling out gifts to good little children.

Some 40 years later, the political cartoonist Thomas Nast produced a series of illustrations of Santa for the magazine Harper's Weekly. Nast’s Santa was a plump, jolly old fellow with a white beard. Then, between 1931 and 1964, Haddon Sundblom created a new Santa each Christmas for Coca-Cola advertisements that appeared worldwide on the back covers of Post and National Geographic magazines. This is the Santa we know and love today with a red suit trimmed with white fur, leather boots and belt, long white beard and a pack of toys slung onto his back. Many people wrongly believe that Santa’s red suit is down to Santa being dressed in Coca-Cola colours, but this is not true as the colours originate from the red clothes worn by the original St Nicholas when he was bishop of Myra.