1. Nicholas was born in
Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th
century.
2. Nicholas was among the most
senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New
Testament. The text they produced
portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil”[11] who sentenced Jesus to death.
3. In 1087, a group of
sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in
Bari, Italy. There Nicholas supplanted a
female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who used
to fill the children's stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from her shrine at
Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts
during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death,
December 6.
4. The Nicholas cult spread
north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by
Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a long, white beard and rode a
horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his
Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his
flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.
5. In a bid for pagan
adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult and
taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts on December 25th instead
of December 6th.
6. In 1809, the novelist
Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van
Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white
bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.
7. Dr. Clement Moore, a
professor at Union Seminary, read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he
published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before
Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a
mouse. The stockings were hung by the
chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with
eight reindeer who descended through chimneys.
8. The Bavarian illustrator
Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Santa Claus. From 1862 through 1886, based on Moore’s
poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Santa for Harper’s
Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had
been pictured as everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure
in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home
at the North Pole, his workshop filled with elves, and his list of the good and
bad children of the world. All Santa was
missing was his red outfit.
9. In 1931, the Coca Cola
Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create
a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled
his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby
face. The corporation insisted that
Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red. And Santa was born – a blend of Christian
crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.
