Have you ever wondered where Santa Claus comes from? This past Tuesday, our Brew Theology group gathered to discuss the strange history of Santa, and this post is adapted from our discussion…

Santa Claus represents a fusion of several important folk heroes, the most prominent being the historical St. Nicholas of Myra. An early 4th Century bishop, Nicholas came from a wealthy family but embraced a life of asceticism. Nicholas was famously pious. Legend has it, as an infant, he refused to breastfeed on Wednesdays and Fridays in keeping with a priestly fast schedule, but nothing is known of the infant Nicholas’s policy toward cookies. Nicholas’s family died when he was very young, and he was generous with the fortune they left him.

In one famous story, the now-adult Nicholas learned of a poor father who was going to have to sell his daughters into slavery or prostitution if he could not raise dowries so they could be married. That night, Nicholas disguised himself in a red robe and tossed bags of gold through their window. Legend has it the bags landed in the girls’ stockings, which were drying by the fire. In another local legend, Nicholas resurrected three young boys who had been murdered by a local butcher and stuffed into a barrel. The butcher, apparently desperate for money, intended to sell the boys as ham, but Nicholas visited the shop and brought back to life. This miraculous scene became a favorite subject for medieval artists, so if you ever see a painting with three kids jumping out of a barrel in front of St. Nick, that’s what’s going on.

The historical Nicholas was also an adamant defender of Christian belief. At the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, Nicholas supposedly became so frustrated with the infamous heretic Arius that he slapped him in the face to silence his false teaching. How’s that for jolly? Nicholas may have even spent a little time in jail for this incident.

Nicholas became the patron saint of children, sailors, brewers, merchants, falsely accused people, and prostitutes (because of the whole stocking incident). Even though Nicholas was never officially canonized by the Catholic Church, he was so beloved he retained the title of “Saint” in folk legend. During the Middle Ages, he was second only to Jesus and Mary in popularity among artists, and Dutch sailors especially loved St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas in Dutch). In the 12th Century, a group of French nuns began distributing treats to children on St. Nicholas’s feast day (December 6th), and it didn’t take long for this practice to catch on across Europe. Seeing the celebration of a saint as a potential stumbling block for new Protestant converts, Martin Luther and the Protestant reformers attempted to downplay St. Nick. Luther and company tried to substitute a tradition where the Christ child left treats on Christmas. Of course, the 8-pound 6-ounce Baby Jesus ’s German name (Christkindl) gradually morphed into Kris Kringle, and the celebration of St. Nick continued with this new name.

So, full confession: all the above information is the neat and tidy version of Santa’s timeline. As we’ve talked about before with Halloween, Christianity’s supplanting of pagan religions in Europe wasn’t exactly a clean break but more of a congealed salad. Winter Solstice festivals have long been a part of pre-Christian European tradition, and while the modern Santa Claus effectively merges Father Christmas and St. Nicholas into one person, some of the medieval and pre-medieval festivals have Father Christmas as his own boisterous entity distinct from the more reserved St. Nicholas. Charles Dickens’s Ghost of Christmas Present takes heavy inspiration from this more hedonistic Father Christmas.

Over the years, other folk deities have become helpers to St. Nick or even merged with him completely. Italy celebrates Befana, a soot-covered Christmas Witch who slides down chimneys to leave treats for children. Germany has Santa’s companion, Knecht Ruprecht, who beats naughty children with a sack of coal, perhaps spawning the tradition of Santa leaving coal for naughty children. Finland’s Joulupukki the goat-man brings treats with his reindeer-driven sleigh. The monstrous Krampus beats and abducts naughty children in the Alpine countries, and then there’s Belgium and the Netherlands’ treat-tossing Zwarte Piet (literally “Black Peter”) whose picture you can find in the dictionary next to the word “problematic.” Some authors even theorize a link between Santa Claus and Odin (since Odin was highly involved in northern Europe’s pre-Christian Yule feasts). While Odin was known as a white-bearded giver of gifts, most of Odin’s gifts were swords and other weapons given to adults, so the connection between Odin and Santa Claus is tenuous at best.

Of course, America has its own distinct take on Santa. Dutch immigrants brought Sinterklass with them to the New World, and since post-Revolutionary Americans wanted to distance themselves from anything British (including Father Christmas), Washington Irving and other writers jumped on Sinterklaas as the true American Christmas icon and anglicized his name to Santa Claus. Clement Moore’s 1823 poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (better known as The Night Before Christmas) and Thomas Nast’s illustrations in Harper’s Weekly in the 1860s built up Santa’s standard red-coated imagery, named his eight reindeer, and placed his home/workshop at the North Pole. Poet Katharine Lee Bates introduced Mrs. Claus in the 1880s, and a 1930s Coca-Cola ad campaign arguably cemented Santa Claus’s definitive look for the next century (although, for the record, he already had the red and white color scheme long before Coke got ahold of him). A series of popular movies and the Macy’s holiday parade soon took Santa Claus from regional holiday custom to international megastar.

Born from a Christian folk hero, wrapped in the lore of many nations, and sprinkled with a hefty dose of American consumerism, Santa Claus is recognized and celebrated all over the world. Sure, his modern incarnation doesn’t much resemble the original 4th Century Turkish bishop, but his evolution shows us quite a bit about our cultural values: prosperity, charity, happiness, and a special celebration of children and childhood innocence. Maybe, in reading this history, you see aspects of Santa we should critique. Maybe there are parts of the Santa mythos we need to abandon (like Zwarte Piet), forgotten components we should bring back, or wholly new elements we should consider adding. But that’s the great thing about a cultural myth like Santa Claus: we control the story.

Who is Santa Claus to you? What does the symbol of Santa say about us and our culture? What about Santa might need some updating? Hopefully these questions bring some jolly conversation to you and your loved ones this Christmas.