Many traditions on modern-day Christmas do not come from Biblical accounts. They may have originated outside traditions, satirical stories, or misinterpretations. In this series of blogs, we will look at some of these origins and how they fit into the modern-day vision of the Christmas season, which is celebrated by not just Christians but people of many different beliefs.

This article will focus on Santa Claus.

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Before many people were literate, it was common for words and terms to take on multiple spellings from oral tradition or just mis-hearing of what was said through translations of languages. This caused the stories of "Saint Nicholas" to evolve into the stories of "Santa Claus", by way of "Sinterklaas", "Sante Claus", and other variations.

The real St. Nicholas was born in the third century in Patara, Greece (modern day Turkey). His parents died when he was young, causing him to inherit a great amount of wealth. He took it upon himself to follow Jesus' teachings and give away all the wealth to help the poor and needy, especially children. Because of his service to God, Nicholas was named Bishop of Myra. He died on December 6th, AD343. After his death, he was given the title of Saint by the Catholic Church.

Over the centuries, the stories of his generosity spread throughout Europe and eventually to the New World, where he would continue to be honored with names of churches and cities. Some of these stories told of him delivering presents to orphanages in a horse-drawn sleigh. Many focused on his helping of the poor. Others incorporated pagan traditions, potentially stories of Odin or Thor.

In 1809, Washington Irving published a satirical fiction cartoon for New York Historical Society called "Knickerbocker's History of New York", which came 5 years after the Society promoted St. Nicholas as the city's patron saint. In this, St. Nicholas was portrayed as a Dutch elf who would enter houses through the chimney to bring gifts.

The following year, the Society commissioned Alexander Anderson to create an American version of St. Nicholas for their for St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6th. This portrayal adds the premise of treats given in children's stockings by the fireplace.

Until this point, St. Nicholas was unassociated with the secular Christmas holiday of that time, which was known for its violence, drunkenness, and assault, coming in the downtime after harvest. In an effort to make it a more family-oriented holiday for American culture, an anonymous author write the poem "Children's Friend" in 1821, which told of Sante Claus. This portrayal had Sante coming from the North with his flying reindeer to give safe and fun gifts good children on Christmas Eve. Add in the poem "A Night Before Christmas", which came two years later, and the modern-day Santa Claus picture was here.

Further advertising campaigns by Coca Cola and retail outlets in the early to mid 1900s helped to finalize the image of Santa Claus that has held for decades.

So, although the modern-day Santa Claus has little to do with the Christmas celebration of the birth of Jesus, he does have his roots in St. Nicholas, who was known for his life of serving the needy by the followings of Jesus. Through the commercialization of Christmas, it still does hold the root of putting others before ourselves by providing gifts to those around us.

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Note that parts of this article have come from the website http://www.stnicholascenter.org and articles at www.lone-star.net and www.orlutheran.com. I've researched many other sources, as well.

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Stay tuned for the next articles, which concern Dec 25th, candy canes, the Magi, tree decoration, lights, gift-giving, and more.