Is Santa Claus real?

Okay, I know, this is patronizing the season, but it’s a fun subject even if it’s a myth, a well-established myth I might add. Despite the fact that Christmas is a religious celebration of Christ’s birth, the entire season has been turned into a commercial promotion for egregious spending, and Santa’s image is widely used in this blatant merchandising endeavor. This commercialization practice has been going on so long the true meaning of the day has been muted in the interests of greed. Yeah, this is a rant.

The modern idea of Santa Claus is so iconic it’s permanently burned into our brains. It was popularized by Clement Clarke Moore’s poem in 1837 called ‘A Visit from St. Nicolas’, or as it’s more popularly known ‘The Night Before Christmas’. Good grief! Has it been that long ago?

The idea of the classical figure, a male with a white beard that gives out presents to children on Christmas Eve, was brought over from Europe, mostly from Germanic speaking people. Kris Kringle and Saint Nicholas are aliases. The word Sinterklass, or Saint Nicholas, is a Dutch idea more like the modern version.

Saint Nicholas of Myra was a real person, a Greek bishop in the 4th century who was known to give generous gifts to the poor, and this practice of giving children gifts on his day, December 6, flourished, and Martin Luther changed it into the practice of doing it on Christmas. However, Martin Luther suggested that the Christkind, or Christ Child, was the one who gave out the gifts. But, people didn’t forget Saint Nicholas, and his persona became popular and many others promulgated it down from that time, morphing it and syncretizing it into their own religious and mythical cultures.

Unfortunately, the image of Santa Claus has been prostituted into a way to promote commerce. In other words, Saint Nicholas’s alias has been decoupled from Christmas, or at least the religious aspect of Christ’s birth, and degraded into a way to get people to shop at malls and buy more stuff.

The idea that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole and has elves helping him make toys is more like folklore, which was popular among Germanic speaking people. The idea that he delivers toys by riding on a sleigh pulled by reindeers that can fly is just more of this folklore driven to the extreme. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was introduced in a 1939 booklet by Robert L. May and was made popular in a song by Gene Artry in 1949. Needless to say, the iconic image of Santa is ubiquitous with the Christmas season. Santa’s image may be the most iconic persona in history, next to Christ, that is.

So, there you are. Santa Claus is a real person in the form of Saint Nicholas, so don’t spoil the myth for your children, Let them enjoy the great Christmas wonder as long as possible.

Thanks for reading, and Merry Christmas everyone!