The evolution of Santa
Don Coldsmith
Monday, December 18, 2006
OUR Judeo-Christian culture has a strange way of absorbing and modifying bits of other cultures and religions until they become completely unrecognizable. Santa Claus, for example, is probably the most recognizable symbol of crass commercialism that exists. Yet he was a real person, a Christian Saint, who has been through a remarkable sequence of change.
Somehow, Christmas has taken on a sort of Old English flavor for us, with holly and mistletoe and Charles Dickens and carolers. And Santa, of course. Most people don’t realize that St. Nicholas was actually TURKISH — The Bishop of Myra, a small town in Lycia, about 300 A.D. He apparently ascended to the bishop’s office while very young, and is known as the “boy bishop.” He became the patron saint of schoolboys and then, of all children. In Germany, he became Pelz Nichol, translated “Nicholas in fur,” and described as a hairy elf. Parents tell Pelz Nichol how their children behave and receive presents or switches as they deserve.
The Santa Claus name is a corruption of Sinter Klaas, which is Dutch for St. Nicholas.
Santa’s appearance and mode of transport have changed considerably. Originally a tall, slender and stately figure in bishop’s robes, he rode a white donkey. Dutch settlers in New York had a somewhat different idea, developed by the writer Washington Irving. Irving, who described St. Nicholas as the “Guardian of New York,” saw him as a plump jolly man who looked much like a Dutch settler — broad-brimmed hat, baggy breeches, smoking a pipe — this Sinter Klaas drove a wagon and a team of horses across the sky and dropped presents down chimneys.
In 1822, Clement C. Moore wrote the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” for his own children. We know it as “The Night Before Christmas.” Now, if you actually READ it, Santa doesn’t have a red suit. He’s “dressed all in fur,” like Pelz Nichol, and is described as an elf. He has traded his horse team for an eight-hitch of miniature reindeer and his wagon for a sleigh.
Paintings a few years later begin to show him in knee boots and with fur trim on his suit, which is often green or red. An old jumping jack toy, made by my grandfather, shows a more slender Santa with a red coat, blue trousers and boots which are laced to the knees. The fur trim on his coat is ermine, like that on a king’s robes. This Santa doesn’t look very jolly, probably because of job pressures.
St. Nicholas was actually deported from England by King Henry VIII when the king withdrew from the Roman Catholic church to found the Church of England. Celebrations of the feast day of St. Nicholas, December 6, became illegal. Somewhat later, Queen Victoria reincarnated him, but as “Father Christmas,” a British-looking gentleman in a long-tailed coat and square-topped beaver hat.
In another strange twist, the Protestant Reformation in Europe replaced the Saint with the Christ-child, Christkindle in German. This figure became Kris Kringle, who in some parts of Europe brings gifts and is sometimes ACCOMPANIED by a hairy elf, Pelz Nichol!
By this time it’s getting hard to tell what it’s all about. We have the original Saint, as well as Kris Kringle, Pelz Nichol, Sinter Klaas, Santa and Father Christmas. Some of these may be the same individual (or not). Sometimes they accompany each other. To further complicate the scene, other English-speaking countries, (i.e, England, Canada and Australia) have popularized the American version of Santa Claus. They may have both Santa and Father Christmas.
One last bit of Christmas trivia: Early in this century, United States banks could (and did) print their own currency. It was accepted as legal tender. In New York City was the Bank of Saint Nicholas, named for the saint whom Washington Irving depicted as the “Guardian of New York City.”
At one time, the Bank of Saint Nicholas printed a three-dollar bill. They chose for the portrait on it their patron saint. This is not likely to come up in ordinary conversation. But, if anyone ever happens to ask you who has his picture on a three-dollar bill, you’ll know: It’s Santa Claus!
Merry Christmas!
Author and columnist Don Coldsmith lives in Emporia. He wrote this column in 1995.