Of all the figures from Christianity to mythologically metamorphose into Christmas-time
gift-bringer Santa Claus, why was it Saint Nicholas? While we’re at it, why did any figure
from early Christian history end up becoming our favorite sleigh-riding home-intruder? As
we celebrate the year-end holiday of Saturnalia – wait, no – Yule! agh no come on which one is
it – Christmas? CHRISTMAS, that one – they all just blend together – I thought it would
be illuminating to trace the history of how a 4th century Christian bishop became The International
Face of Holiday Cheer. It’s a millennium and a half between Saint and Claus, and the way we
got there covers three continents and multiple religions, but very little of that intersects
with the stated purpose of this show being about Historians. See, Saint Nicholas himself was a
man of action rather than words. Meanwhile, Santa Claus isn’t exactly known for his poetry, and if I
want to keep this show PG I’m not sure I’ll take my chances even quoting the man. So, on paper,
neither figure qualifies as this show’s namesake History-Maker. But here’s a secret for you:
I Don’t Care! SO! Let’s do some Christmas.
Our story begins at a tumultuous time for the Roman Empire, which, admittedly, does not narrow
it down. But in this case, Nick was born in the 200s AD amid a century of invasions, internal
upheavals, economic disaster, and widespread disease. As a result, we have no records until the
500s, around when emperor Justinian was renovating churches to St Nicholas in Constantinople. We do
get the sense that Nick-boy here was already established in Christian tradition and widely
regarded as a cool dude worth venerating. But what did he do? Well according to our first proper
source – a 9th century Byzantine Saint-biographer – Nick was born in southern Anatolia around 270,
and grew up devoutly Christian when the new religion had dubious legality in the empire.
His parents had been rather wealthy, which was a rare accomplishment during the Crisis of the
Third Century, and when they died (a much more common accomplishment at the time), Nicholas vowed
to spend his considerable inheritance on those in need, and this combo of big heart and deep pockets
set him up well for a life of service.
His most famous story involves a poor father and his three daughters. The father barely had
the money to feed his family, let alone pay for three dowries so that his daughters could find
good husbands, so he thought his only option was to sell his daughters into prostitution.
Dark! Nicholas had money to pay their dowries, but didn’t want to make a big show of his generosity,
so he instead snuck over to the house at night, tossed a giant sack of gold through the window,
and ran away. The father and daughters were overjoyed by their good fortune, and married the
eldest daughter to a nice husband, giving thanks to the anonymous benefactor who saved her. Nick
repeated his reverse-break-in two more times until all three women were happily married and
distinctly not-enslaved, but on the third night, the father stayed up and caught Nicholas in the
act, thanking him profusely for all his kindness. This story is the most Santa-y of the bunch, as it
establishes the core trait of stealth-charity, but there’s plenty other cool saintly jazz in the life
of Nick – like the multiple times he’s said to have saved crews-full of sailors by calming storms
with a prayer, or the time Nicholas successfully prayed for God to revive three boys dismembered
by an evil innkeeper – but as far as historical specifics, he’s said to have been made Bishop of
Myra, then imprisoned and tortured by the emperor Diocletian during his Christian persecutions,
then later freed by emperor Constantine after legalizing Christianity. Some but not all
sources indicate he was present at Constantine’s Council of Nicaea, where he allegedly asserted
the theological importance of the Trinity by punching a heretic in the face. Tragically,
that story first appears in the 1300s, so it’s a great meme, but it is only that.
There’s plenty else to recount from the
realms of fable and Christian tradition, but we’re already stretching the bounds of historicity,
so we’ll leave Nicholas there and begin exploring his robust afterlife. Over the following centuries
he was revered in the Byzantine east, and given his patronage of Sailors, many of his churches
were built in port cities. Things changed in the 1070s /80s, when most of Anatolia got conquered by
Muslim invaders, so Italian sailors from Bari took it upon themselves to bring his bones to safer
ground. Namely, they housed the relics of Saint Nicholas in a lovely new Basilica, and raked in
the cash from becoming a major pilgrimage site.
As tales of Saint Nicholas took on new popularity in the Latin west, this figure came in contact
with Northern Europe and the vestiges of Norse paganism, whereupon they began to syncretize.
Christmas in general had a history of borrowing from Roman Saturnalia and the Germanic Yule,
and this confluence of medieval traditions included The Wild Hunt, a parade of ghosts led
by Odin riding a horse through the night sky, a core element of the winter celebrations into which
St Nicholas was smushed. In the Low Countries, AKA the Netherlands and friends, this fusion of
Nick and Odin resulted in the character of Sint Nikolaas or Sinterklaas, a bearded man dolled
up in red bishop’s garb, riding a white horse and putting money and gifts into the shoes of children
and the poor, which is how we’ll get to gifts in children’s stockings. The Sinterklaas festival,
true to Saturnalia, involved role-reversals and immense public drunkenness. Good times had by all.
Sinterklaasfeest came to a crashing
halt during the Protestant Reformation, because Martin Luther wanted to abolish the Cult of the
Saints and suggested holiday gift-giving should instead be handled by Baby Jesus. Does that make
Luther a killjoy? Debatable. But, he made Jesus come to work on his birthday, and that also means
he supports child labor. Tisk, Martin, tisk. Yes he's an eternity old and also God but the man was
just born! Give him a minute! But unfortunately for the Protestant authorities in the Netherlands,
their blanket ban on public Catholic festivals didn’t stop the wintertime gift-giving,
as Sinterklaas went undercover, trading his ornate bishop’s finery for simple red robes
and continuing his festive work for the next few centuries. Sinterklaasfeest was reintroduced in
the mid 1800s with the appalling addition of jolly helpers in very un-jolly blackface. This version
retains some Saint Nick vibes by arriving to the Netherlands by boat, in this case from Spain,
but again, WHYYYY?
Independent of the Sinterklaas tradition, other Christmastime gift-bringers took shape around the
world in the past few centuries, mostly iterating on the concept of “Father Christmas”, but big-man
Claus was codified in the good old US of A. Dutch colonists imported Sinterklaas to the New York
area, and by the 1770s that was Anglicized into Santa Claus. In 1809, Santa was described as a
portly dutchman who rides a wagon through the sky and airdrops gifts down chimneys, and the
character was locked-in with 1823’s “A Visit from St Nicholas”, better known as The Night Before
Christmas. Later that century, American cartoonist Thomas Nast solidified Santa’s aesthetic and
established his North-Pole backstory. Nast crafted his version of Santa in the midst
of the civil war, and used Mr Claus to promote a fiercely pro-Union message, giving the Union boys
and their families back home a Christmas mythology to rally around. Now after all these centuries and
absolutely wild permutations of the character, we should ask: is this the spirit of Saint Nick… and
honestly… kinda, yeah. So remember to celebrate the true spirit of the season by throwing gold
through your neighbors’ windows and punching non-Trinitarian heretics. Man, Christmas is weird.
Thank you for watching, this video
is dedicated to my late grandfather Nikolaos who, true to his namesake saint, was always
exceptionally loving and generous. And however you celebrate your year-end holidays, jolly Saint Nick
or otherwise, we hope you have a joyful and safe holiday season, as well as a happy start to your
new year. Thank you for hanging out with OSP in 2022, and we will see you in the next one.