Who is Santa?
Our image of Santa Claus today is very much different to how he started. We recognise him as an old man who wears a red suit and likes to eat cookies! He is a man of many names ranging from St Nicolas to Father Christmas to Chris Cringle, Sinterklaas and finally Santa Claus as he is widely known today. Let’s take a look at how this jolly old man and giver of gifts came to be.
The idea of Santa really took shape in the Victorian era but what gave birth to the idea of Santa started way before Victorian England.
Saturnalia
In Ancient times, many European countries held celebrations around the winter solstice to honour Saturn the god of Agriculture. The celebration was known as Saturnalia and lasted a week. This is really the birth of Christmas and helped to develop the idea of the man many now know as Santa Claus.
In England, the idea of Father Christmas dates back to these ancient pre-Christian midwinter festivals. Father Christmas started off as a pagan figure robed in a green hooded cloak and wearing a wreath made of holly or mistletoe and would lift people’s spirits in the dark days of winter. He was still depicted as a winter spirit through the middle-ages and into the 19th-century. In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 1843 Father Christmas’ image is used to symbolise the ghost of Christmas present. It’s also worth noting that up to around the 15th century Father Christmas was seen as a spirit and Christmas was largely focussed on the adults and not the children. It was only after that that he became represented as a person.
St Nicolas
St Nicolas is believed to have been born in Patara, Lycia in Asia Minor which is now part of present-day Turkey. He was said to have lost both his parents at an early age which led to him using his wealth to help others. He was a devoted Christian and later became a bishop in Myra which we know today as the city of Demure.
St Nicolas is credited with having performed miracles particularly helping others in times of need. He soon became known as the saviour of children and sailors and he became the patron saint of children; he became synonymous with gift giving.
Sinterklaas
Sinterklaas became popular with the Nordic countries for many years until the time of the reformation around 1500 which saw people turn away from worshiping saints.
In some European country’s such as Holland and Germany, it remained popular to celebrate the feast day of Saint Nicolas on December the 6th. To this day, in the Netherlands, the Dutch still call the jolly fellow Sinterklaas which translates to St Nicolas. It is the norm for the Netherlands to celebrate on the 6th December and give presents form “St Nic” on the 5th. Christmas day as we know it on the 25th of December isn’t celebrated by most in the Netherlands as they see Christmas as the 5th and 6th of December.
On the evening in the 5th December children leave out boots or shoes in the hopes that they will be filled with sweet treats, this is something that was part of my own childhood as I spent my early years in Germany. It was my favourite thing to do as a child on Christmas eve to fill my plastic Santa boot up with sweets. Being British we still observed the 24th December as Christmas eve despite partaking in the local custom. In Germany today, it’s still customary for children to leave boots out for Santa to fill.
Reindeer
In 1822, American author Clement Clarke Moore penned the poem A Visit from St Nick, better known as The Night Before Christmas. It’s interesting to note that he used the term St Nick despite St Nick’s origins being so far away, this shows the blending of the concepts of all the differing spirits and saints.
This is also the first time that names of reindeer are noted, giving him his animal companions to help fly the sleigh. The names for the reindeer have not changed too much from their original names. Clement, who was a Dutch immigrant, named them as Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid and Dunder and Blixem. It wasn’t until 1938 they lost their Dutch names and became the reindeer we know today namely Donner and Blitzen.
Santa Claus
As the Victorians were focused on family life and children old St Nic needed a new image to represent these times. It’s believed that Santa Claus stepped into Victorian England in 1864 when he was featured in a story by the American Author Susanna Warner. In her tale of Santa Claus who brought gifts.
However, there is also evidence that in England in the 1800s, other beings brought gifts to the children,such as fairies. The legend of Father Christmas soon displaced them as the one that sent gifts. By this time, he had fully transformed from St Nicolas to Santa Claus.
Jolly Old Man in a Red Suit.
Taking form of a jolly old man giving gifts to children, helped along the way with 8 reindeer and his wife Mrs Claus. It is often incorrectly assumed that Santa got his Red Suit from a Coca Cola advert. This is not the case. The person who actually gave Santa his red suit is an American called Thomas Nest who drew Santa in his iconic form for Harper weekly newspaper in 1881.