The familiar legend of the mystic figure Santa Claus, which has been an integral part of American culture during the Christmas season has its origin dating back to the fourth century A.D. This familiar character had its origin as St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was born around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra which is in present-day Turkey. He was the bishop of Myra. He was known as a benevolent giver. He was greatly admired for his piety and kindness. Legend has it he would travel at night and present gifts to children. He didn't like to be seen so children were told that they had to go to bed early if they expected to receive gifts at Christmas. That legend is still continued today. He would give away all his inherited wealth traveling the countryside helping the poor and the sick. The best known story we hear was that St. Nicholas saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father. He provided them with a dowry so that they could be married. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death which is December 6. He died on December 6, 343 A.D.
By the time of the Renaissance, he was the most popular saint in Europe. Even after the Protestant Reformation, when the veneration of saints began to be discouraged, he had a positive reputation especially in Holland. In 800 A.D. St. Nicholas was recognized as a saint by the Eastern Catholic Church. In the 1200's, December 6 was established as Bishop Nicholas Day in France.
St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) made his first inroads into American popular culture towards the end of the eighteenth century. In 1773 a group of Dutch families gathered togethered to honor the anniversary of his death. It was the Dutch in New York that played an integral part in making Santa Claus a staple in America's Christmas culture. The name Santa Claus evolves from his Dutch nickname "Sinter Klaas", as a shortened form of "Sint Nikolas" (Dutch). In 1804 John Pintard, a member of the New York Historical society, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the society's annual meeting. The background of the engraving contains now-familiar Santa images including stockings filled with toys and fruit hung over a fireplace. In 1809 Washington Irving helped to popularize the Santa image when he referred to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York in his book, The History of Santa Claus. As his prominence grew, he was described as everything from a "rascal" with a blue three-cornered hat, red waistcoat, and yellow stockings to a man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a "huge pair of Flemish trunk hose."
Starting in the 1820's, stores began to advertise Christmas shopping and by the 1840's, newspapers were creating separate sections for holiday advertisements, which featured images of the newly-popular Santa Claus. Thousands of children visited a Philadelphia shop in 1841 to see a life-size Santa Claus model. In the 1890's, the Salvation Army was seeking to raise money to pay for the free meals that were distributed to needy families. They used unemployed men to play the role of Santa. They would don themselves in Santa Claus suits and they would be sent to the streets of New York ringings bells to solicit donations. That tradition is still carried on to this day.
In a final note, one of the most disturbing things I see when it comes to parents teaching their children about Santa is that parents will teach their children that Santa is the one who sends them their gifts. That's not right. When you listen to songs such as "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town", he is accredited with godlike qualities such as "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake." It's one thing to teach children that Santa is a mystical figure that's ingrained in today's culture, but it's wrong to give Santa the credit for giving gifts. God's our provider. Jehovah God is the one that gives us good gifts. It's wrong when we credit Santa Claus for something that God should be given credit for. The old adage says, "Give credit to whom credit is due." God's the one that deserves credit for everything. God's the one that sees everything. He's omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. One of the Ten Commandments says not to worship idols. It's never right to present Santa as a godlike figure. If parents are going to teach their children about Santa, they shouldn't give him credit for giving good gifts because Santa's not our provider. The Lord is and only Him. Only the Lord should be given credit for His bountiful blessings; no one else.
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