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Published on 12/23/1996 All articles from this issue

How did Santa get a start in our lives?

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By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

Children around the world look forward to Christmas when Santa Claus visits. They all enjoy the myth of Santa Claus, but very few agree on where he originated. Most encyclopedias, however, credit Santa Claus and Christmas to St. Nicholas, who goes back 1,725 years.

In almost every country the Santa Claus character is based on St. Nicholas, who lived from 271 A.D. to Dec. 6, 342. St. Nicholas Feast Day is celebrated in many Catholic countries, but it has special meaning in Holland and Belgium due to the Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) tradition.

Most scholars believe Nicholas was born of a wealthy family in Lycia, in Asia Minor. He was raised a devout Christian and when his parents died in an epidemic, he distributed his family's fortune among the poor and entered the priesthood.

Long before his death, Nicholas's fame for good deeds and saintly ways began to spread across the Mediterranean. He became Archbishop of Myra and as the good Bishop of Myra he becalmed stormy seas when desperate sailors cried for help. He became the patron saint of sailors, merchants and children.

The custom of hanging up a stocking to receive gifts from Santa Claus originated with the St. Nicholas legend involving three dowry-less girls. Each time St. Nicholas threw a bag of gold down a chimney, it landed on a stocking that happened to be hanging up to be dried.

The St. Nicholas cult spread from Bari (Asia Minor) to coastal towns along the Atlantic and North Sea. By the 13th century, Holland, with its large population of navigators and merchants, had no fewer than 23 St. Nicholas churches. Some are still standing today.

Amsterdam adopted St. Nicholas as its patron saint, and Rome decreed Dec. 6 as the anniversary of his death and St. Nicholas official calendar day. By the 17th century, the Sinterklass legend and celebrations were so much a part of Holland's calendar that famous Dutch painters and writers based works on them and there were countless folk songs on Christmas.

A Dutch child insists that Santa Claus lives not at the North Pole, but in Spain. According to the Dutch "Sinterklass" legend, popular for century in Holland and Flanders, now The Netherlands and Belgium, Santa makes his first annual appearance in mid-November and he arrives from a boat from Spain.

Every night after his arrival until Dec. 6 - the feast day of St. Nicholas, the historical figure upon whom the legendary character is based- Sinterklass rides a white horse over rooftops, tossing toys and gold down chimneys.

Every night, children place their shoes in front of the fireplace before they go to bed in hopes of finding their footwear filled with some Sinterklaas bounty in the mornings. They also leave a generous supply of carrots, sugar cubes and water for Sinterklaas's horse.

About the time the Dutch introduced their Sinterklaas legend into the New World, the legend traveled into Britain as Father Christmas and France as Pere Noel.

Christmas, as we know it in United States, came over with the Pilgrims and the Dutch invasion into New York and Philadelphia during the 1500s.