Who is Santa Claus? The story of Saint Nicholas
By Pastor Mark Driscoll and Deacon Crystal Griffin
The larger-than-life myths surrounding Santa Claus
actually emanate from the very real person of Saint Nicholas.
It is difficult to know the exact details of his life with certainty
as the ancient records are sparse, but pieces can be put
together as a mosaic of his life.
Nicholas was born in the third century in Patara, a village
in what is now Turkey. He was born into an affluent
family, but his parents died tragically when he was quite
young. His parents had raised him to be a devout Christian,
which led him to spend his great inheritance on helping the
poor, especially children. He was known to frequently give
gifts to children, sometimes even hanging socks filled with
treats and gifts.
Perhaps his most famous act of kindness was helping
three sisters. Because their family was too poor to pay for
their wedding dowry, three young Christian women were
facing a life of prostitution until Nicholas paid their dowry,
thereby saving them from a horrible life of sexual slavery.
Nicholas grew to be a well-loved Christian leader and
was eventually voted the Bishop of Myra, a port city that the
apostle Paul had previously visited (Acts 27:5-6). Nicholas
reportedly also traveled to the Council of Nicea,
where he helped defend the deity of Jesus Christ in AD
325.
Following his death on December 6, 343, he was canonized
as a saint. The anniversary of his death became the
St. Nicholas holiday when gifts were given in his memory. He
remained a very popular saint among Catholic and Orthodox
Christians, with some 2,000 churches named after him. The
holiday in his honor eventually merged with Christmas as
they were celebrated within weeks of one another.
During the Reformation, however, Nicholas fell out of
favor with Protestants, who did not approve of canonizing
certain people as saints and venerating them with holidays.
His holiday was not celebrated in any Protestant country
except Holland, where his legend as Sinterklass lived on. In
Germany, Martin Luther replaced him with the Christ child as
the object of holiday celebration, or, in German, Christkindl.
Over time, the celebration of the Christ child was simply pronounced
Kriss Kingle and oddly became just another name
for Santa Claus.
The legends about Santa Claus are most likely a compilation
of other folklore. For example, there was the story in
Nicholas’ day that a demon was entering people’s homes.
It would slither down the chimneys and slaughter children
(disembowelling them or stuffing them up the flue, or keeping
them in a sack to eat later) and that Nicholas cast it out of a
home.
Also, there was a Siberian myth (near the North Pole)
that a holy man, or shaman, entered people’s homes to leave
them mushrooms as gifts. According to the legend, he would
hang them in front of the fire to dry. Reindeer would reportedly
eat them and become intoxicated. This may have started the
myth that the reindeer could fly, as it was believed that the
shaman could also fly. This myth may have merged with the
Santa Claus myth and if so, explains him traveling from the
North Pole to come down the chimney and leave presents on
the mantle over the fireplace before flying away with reindeer.
