Until the middle of the 19th Century, many people in New England refused to allow themselves to celebrate Christmas, reeking as it did of popery. Yet, as they watched it become a big holiday for everyone else, they felt very sad and left out that they couldn't celebrate it. They wanted to somehow celebrate it without officially celebrating it. Their solution to this dilemma was to celebrate it but call it a different name, and thereby officially be celebrating a different holiday. The name they chose was Thanksgiving. They imitated every detail of Christmas. Remember what Christmas was like in the very early 19th Century. The main thing about the holiday was the dinner. The entire family would get together and have a huge dinner. This was before most people had Christmas trees, and before gift giving became a big part of the holiday. In the early 19th Century, Thanksgiving was usually held in December. They even went as far as to write Thanksgiving carols, such as "Harvest Home", which are never sung today. In other words, the holiday of Thanksgiving, only celebrated in New England, was virtually identical to the early 19th Century Christmas, which was celebrated everywhere else. Ironically, our Thanksgiving has a striking resemblance to an early 19th Century Christmas, although Christmas itself has since evolved into something very different. In the middle of the 19th Century, Christmas became less associated with Catholicism, and New Englanders became less anti-Catholic anyway, and finally allowed themselves to celebrate Christmas, which by that time had become too big to ignore. Thanksgiving itself may have disappeared, having become unnecessary, if it wasn't for the valiant efforts of Sarah Joespha Hale, who led a one woman crusade to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Of course in our time, Thanksgiving has essentially been incorporated into Christmas, since the Christmas season now starts long before that.
There was a very similar phenomenon in the late 20th Century concerning Hanukkah. At that time, some Jews, for some incomprehensible reason, decided that they would not allow themselves to celebrate Christmas. However, they felt very sad and left out that they couldn't celebrate it, especially considering that the late 20th Century Christmas was infinitely larger than the Victorian Christmas. Therefore, they decided to take an extremely minor Jewish holiday, and try to turn it into some sort of Jewish Christmas. They imitated the massive gift giving that typified the 20th Century Christmas. Some of them even went so far as to put "Hanukkah bushes" inside their houses.
Some of you are probably surprised that I managed to get this far into a history of Christmas without mentioning Santa Claus. However, it was in the 19th Century that Santa Claus exploded on the scene as the personification of Christmas. The Council of Nicea was held in 325 A. D. The official purpose was to select the date of Easter but it expanded into trying to make the church’s official position on theological matters more consistent. For instance, there was a debate as to whether Christ had a physical body or if he was a noncorporeal spiritual being. There was a list of names of people who attended this conference, and one of the names on the list was "Nicholas of Myra". This is very important evidence because from this one mention of the name on this list, it’s safe to assume that there was in fact a man by this name. If a name appears on an official document, you can assume there was such a person. If a name doesn’t appear anywhere, it’s safe to assume there was no such person. For instance, the name "Jesus" does not appear anywhere in any official document or contemporary source. However, there was someone named Nicholas from Myra at the Council of Nicea in 325 A. D. However, that one name that appears once on the list is the only reference to the real man named Nicholas. He is not mentioned anywhere else by any contemporary source. Therefore, we know absolutely nothing whatsoever about the real man. This real man, of which nothing is known, inspired a fictional character called Saint Nicholas. You must remember that the medieval character of Saint Nicholas was a completely fictional character. Saint Nicholas is a fictional character very different from, but as fictional as, the later Santa Claus.
An enormous amount of folklore grew up surrounding this character. Nicholas was said to be born to wealthy parents in the city of Patara in modern Turkey in 270 A. D. When he was an infant, he would not breastfeed on Wednesdays and Fridays, which were fast days. He was able to stand up when he was only an infant. When the Bishop of Myra died, the religious leaders gathered in the church to choose a successor. One of them said that the next person who walked in the door would be the next bishop. Nicholas was the next person to walk in the door, and was made Bishop of Myra. In 303 A. D. , the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered a brutal persecution of all Christians, and Nicholas did the Christian martyr thing. Nicholas participated in the famous Council of Nicea in 325 A. D. At one point, he walked up to a fellow participant and slapped him across the face because he disagreed with what he was saying. He died on December 6, 343 A. D. December 6 then became Saint Nicholas Day.
One day, Nicholas learned that there was a poor family that no dowry for their three daughters. With no dowry, no man could be bribed to marry them, and they would have to become prostitutes. Nicholas snuck to their house in the middle of the night. He threw a bag of gold in the window, and it landed in one of the oldest girl’s stockings which were drying by the fire. Therefore they had money for her dowry, and she was saved from prostitution. He returned two more times, and did the same thing for the other two girls. On the third time, the father was waiting in hiding, and grabbed Nicholas. Nicholas begged the father not to tell anyone, but the father did tell people and Nicholas became famous.
Another time, three boys were walking home, and they stopped at an inn. The evil innkeeper murdered them, and chopped them into little pieces. He put their dismembered body parts into a pickle barrel. Nicholas showed up, and magically reassembled their bodies and brought them back to life. This story is why the Victorians would hang an ornament on their Christmas tree that looked like a pickle. In another story, a sailor fell overboard, and then Nicholas, walking on water, picked him up, and carried him back to the ship.
After Nicholas died, his coffin was said to ooze a liquid that had magic healing properties. People would tell stories that touching his coffin caused to lame to walk and the blind to see. Pilgrims would come from throughout Europe for this miraculous cure. It obviously benefited the fame and economy of a city to have his body. In 1087, soldiers and merchants from Italy stole what they claimed to be his remains from the his grave in Myra. They built a church in honor of him in the town of Bari, a port town in southern Italy, which became a site of pilgrimage. Whatever eventually happened to his remains, or what was claimed to be his remains, is not known but people continued to make pilgrimages to both Bari and Myra.
The legends of Nicholas made him so popular that more European churches bore his name than that of all of the apostles combined. He was made patron saint of Greece and Russia. He was also made patron saint of banking and pawnbroking at a time when the two trades were closely related. The 3-ball symbol of pawnshops represents the three bags of gold he threw as dowries. He became the patron saint of everything under the sun, everything from pawnbrokers to sailors to children. In 1969, the Catholic church declared that he wasn’t a real saint partly because the legends about Saint Nicholas are so incredible.
In medieval Europe, Saint Nicholas became a mythical figure who was fully incorporated into European folklore. He was combined with various other characters from folklore, including pagan deities. The most important of these was the Norse god Odin, the father-sky god of the Norse pantheon. Every year at night on the winter solstice, Odin would fly through the air in a chariot. He would look down on them from above, and judge their behavior throughout the entire year. Those who were good were rewarded, and those who were bad were punished. You see how the later Santa Claus contained these elements. You have the night time rider who flies through the air, dispensing reward and punishment.
Among other things, Nicholas was the patron saint of children. A group of 12th Century French nuns started giving candy to children on Saint Nicholas Day, December 6. There then started a belief that Saint Nicholas himself was giving out the candy. There developed a practice of parents giving their children candy or toys on Saint Nicholas Day, and telling them they were brought by Saint Nicholas.
Later, Martin Luther was of course totally against Saint Nicholas, who was more popular than Jesus or any other character. He tried to shift the focus from Nicholas back to Christ. However, at the same, he realized that if he just forced people to quit cold turkey, it would be much more difficult for them to convert from Protestantism. It’s the old thing that if you’re trying to get someone to convert from their religion to yours, you want to make your new religion as similar to their own religion as possible, so it will be a less wrenching transition. Therefore, he had to replace Saint Nicholas with something analogous. He chose to replace Saint Nicholas with the Christ Child. Whereas Saint Nicholas brought gifts on Saint Nicholas Day, December 6, the Christ Child brought gifts on Christmas, December 25. Many people did switch to saying the Christ Child brought the gifts, and there are places in Europe that still practice that tradition. Most people clung to Saint Nicholas. The characters of Saint Nicholas and the Christ Child were also confused with each other. The German name for the Christ Child is "Christ Kinder" which became "Christkindl", which became "Chris Kringle", another name for Santa Claus. For many people who did continue to imagine Saint Nicholas as the gift giver, the date of his arrival was shifted from Dec 6 to Dec 25.
One group of people who would not give up Saint Nicholas were the Dutch. Nicholas was patron saint of sailors, and Dutch sailors refused to give up their saint. The Dutch name for Saint Nicholas was "Sinter Klaas", which would eventually become "Santa Claus". Dutch children would put shoes by the fireplace for Sinter Klaas and leave food out for his horse. He'd gallop on his horse between the rooftops and drop candy down the chimneys into the children's shoes. The Dutch brought these customs with them when they came to the New World, and founded the city of New Amsterdam, later called New York.
During and shortly after the American Revolution, everything British was out of fashion. They wanted their own customs and traditions separate from the British. Anything that wasn’t British was touted as American. In New York, this took the form of looking to the cities’ Dutch past. The country’s first man of letters was Washington Irving (1783 - 1859). He created the fictional characters of Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. In 1809, he wrote a comic satirical work titled "History of New York", ostensibly about New York during the Dutch occupation. He wrote it in the voice of the fictional Diedrich Knickerbocker. In it, he mentions the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas two dozen times. It certainly increased public awareness throughout the U. S. of the character.
Clement Clark Moore (1779 - 1863) was a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in New York City. On Christmas Eve 1822, he went out to buy a turkey for the families’ Christmas dinner. On the way, inspired by the driver and the sleigh, he started composing a poem in his head. When he got back he wrote a poem titled, "A Visit from Saint Nicholas". He read it to his children that night. He never intended for anyone else to hear it. In 1823, it was published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel. He tried to keep it a secret that he had written it because he thought it was childish subject matter that would tarnish his image as a serious distinguished professor. When it was so immensely popular, he did own up to it. The poem began, "Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house...". It immediately set off a sensation. It’s hard to put into words how influential this little poem was. Before that, there was much more variation in the character. The poem established one version of the character, and engraved it in stone. You establish the reindeer. You establish the sleigh. You establish that he definitely comes in and out by going up and down the chimney. The poem marks the transition where Saint Nicholas turns into Santa Claus. After that, Santa Claus became so immensely popular that any writer who needed money from getting writing published, took a whack at Santa Claus. Kathryne Lee Bates invented Mrs. Claus.
It fell to Thomas Nast to show us what Santa Claus looked like. Thomas Nast (1840 - 1902) was a cartoonist for “Harper’s Weekly”. He invented the political symbols of the donkey for the Democratic party, and the elephant for the Republican party. He also loved drawing Santa Claus. He established that Santa lives at the North Pole. He drew Santa at his workshop. He drew Santa looking through a long telescope so he could keep an eye on children. Nast's Santa was short and fat, almost spherical. He was small and gnome-like. In 1931, Coca-Cola hired Haddon Sundblom to draw Santa Claus in advertisements. He drew him as tall, part grandfather and part superhero, in other words, the Santa we all know and love.
This is, of course, the American version of Santa Claus. However, every country imagined Saint Nicholas differently. In Britain, he was Father Christmas. In France, he was Pere Noel. He was usually portrayed as thin and austere instead of fat and jolly. Sometimes, he walked on foot. Sometimes, he rode a donkey. Sometimes, he rode a white goat. There was enormous variation in the character of Saint Nicholas over a thousand years of history, and over the geography of Europe at any given time. It’s more complex than that because one version of the character doesn’t automatically stop at a national boundary, and then another start. Often one version gradually turns into another. How different do two versions of a character have to be before they are different characters? Often different characters influence each other, or are combined together. It’s very complicated. You see this whenever studying folklore, and Saint Nicholas is no exception. Sometimes, he’s portrayed as a Catholic saint. Other times, he’s greatly influenced by pre-Christian pagan belief. In Russia, St. Nicholas rides a goat. In the Netherlands, he’s on horseback, with baskets full of toys on either side. Also, in the Netherlands, they think that he lives in Spain. In different places, he’s imagined as wearing different clothes. The red suit that we imagine him wearing is derived from the fact that bishops wore red robes. The most variation in how Santa Claus is portrayed is in Germany. Almost every village had their own version of the character. I described how Saint Nicholas has been combined with other characters such as Odin or the Christ Child. In one particularly unusual version in eastern Germany, the character of Saint Nicholas was actually combined with the character of the Devil. This unusual character was called Shaggy Goat, and was a hairy, cloven hoofed, and horned version of Saint Nicholas.
The primary motivation for telling stories about whatever version of the Santa Claus character you are using is to make children be good. There are two ways to modify someone’s behavior. One way is to reward good behavior. The other way is to punish bad behavior. These two methods are equivalent, and simply two sides of the same coin. Often the Santa Claus character employed both methods, perhaps by leaving toys for good children, and leaving switches to intimidate the bad ones. However, often these two roles were delegated to two different characters. Essentially, the Santa Claus character was divided in half. The more traditional Santa Claus character rewards good children. However, there is also a second character whose purpose is punish bad children. This second character was usually called Black Peter. This was an immensely popular character throughout Europe, although probably not popular with children, and nearly every country in Europe had a version of him. There was at least as much variation in how the Black Peter character was portrayed throughout Europe as in how the Santa Claus character was portrayed throughout Europe.
Sometimes Black Peter was portrayed as looking exactly the same as Santa Claus except dressed in black. Sometimes, he’s a swashbuckling swordsman. Sometimes, he’s an imp. Black Peter much more frequently had the misfortune of being combined with the Devil. He was very frequently portrayed as a black man. Often, he was portrayed as a Spanish Moor. His personality varied greatly. Sometimes, he was evil. Sometimes, he was a bogeyman used to terrify children. In other versions, he wasn’t evil but was instead a stern disciplinarian. Often, he was simply a dispenser of justice. Our law enforcement, judicial and penal systems are not evil because they exist for the purpose of punishing the guilty, and thereby deterring bad behavior. In some versions, the Black Peter character traveled around with the Santa Claus character like a side kick. Usually, Black Peter would whip bad children, but in more benign versions, he would simply leave coal for them.
In France, Santa Claus and Black Peter were called Pere Noel and Pere Fouettard respectively. The French word "fouetter" is a verb meaning "to whip, to slash, to flog". In Germany, Santa Claus was usually called Father Christmas but is also called Klaasbuur, Burklaas, Rauklas, Bullerklaas, and Sunnercla. In eastern Germany, Santa Claus was much more pagan and was called Ash Man, Shaggy Goat, or Rider. In Germany, Black Peter was usually called Knecht Ruprecht but was also called Krampus, Pelzebock, Pelznickel, Hans Muff, Bartel, and Gumphinkel. He’s a frightening figure, carrying a bundle of switches. Probably the reason for so many different names and descriptions for Santa Claus and Black Peter throughout Germany is because throughout most of history, Germany was many different countries. In the Netherlands, they imagined that the Santa Claus character wears bishop’s robes, and the Black Peter character wears Spanish robes. They imagined Black Peter as a Spanish Moor, who travels around with Santa Claus like a sidekick. This explains why they assumed that Sinter Klaas lived in Spain. In Czechoslovakia, which is now two countries, Santa Claus is called Svanty Mikalas, and is believed to climb down to Earth from Heaven on a golden rope, along with his two companions, an angel and a whip-carrying devil. If by now you’ve caught on to how folklore works, you should be able to guess that the devil was influenced by Black Peter, and the angel was influenced by the Christ Child. In many countries, the Santa Claus character was imagined to have various traveling companions, with versions of Black Peter or the Christ Child being the most common. In Austria, the Black Peter character is none other than the actual Devil himself, although in this particular version, he’s portrayed an one of the Santa Claus character’s minions. It’s certainly an interesting belief system.
Of course, in many stories, the supernatural character that gives gifts on or near Christmas is not primarily based on Saint Nicholas. Of the non-Nicholas characters, the most common is the Christ Child. Although obviously based on the biblical Jesus, the Christ Child was essentially invented by Martin Luther as an alternative to Saint Nicholas to make it easier for Catholics to convert to Protestantism. The Christ Child became a very popular character. Throughout Europe, there developed many different versions of this character also. There is a Christ Child tradition in France where he’s called "Le Petit Jsus". Often the Christ Child is portrayed as an angel. In some unusual versions, the Christ Child is actually female. Again in Germany, there are many versions of the Christ Child that bring gifts on Christmas. One example is Christkind, who is a little girl. It ends up being very unusual theologically. Whereas most Christians say they are waiting for the Second Coming, these people claim that he has already been back a thousand times, and briefly comes back every year in the body of a small child, perhaps a little girl, to give gifts to other children.
There are also regional traditions of other characters who give gifts. The most famous of these is Befana in Italy. According to the story, the three kings were on their way to see the Christ Child, and for some reason, they were traveling through Italy. They stopped at the house of an old woman named Befana. Until recently, hotels were very rare, and when traveling, you would often knock on a stranger's door, and ask to spend the night. When the wise men were leaving, they asked Befana if she wanted to come with them, and give a gift to the Christ Child also. She said, "Yeah sure, just wait until I finish sweeping my hovel". The three kings waited outside, got tired of waiting, decided she changed her mind, and left without her. When she finally finished, she came out only to find that they had gone. Thinking they were only a little ways down the road, she chased after them, crying "Wait! Wait!". Unfortunately, the three kings had gone a great distance, and she never caught up with them. She didn’t know where they were headed, so she wandered aimlessly, hoping she would run into them. She desperately wanted to give a gift to the Christ Child but she didn’t know which child was the Christ Child, so therefore she gave a gift to every child she saw, in case it was the Christ Child. She still does this today. The tradition of Befana has a major advantage over the tradition of Santa Claus in that it explains why she gives gifts to children. With Santa Claus, there’s no explanation other than that he’s a philanthropist.
Befana is usually portrayed as an old crone but also sometimes as a good witch or a faerie queen. Her name "Le Befana" means "Epiphany" since the three kings reached the Christ Child on the Epiphany. According to some versions, she had refused to come with the three kings, or even give them food and shelter in the first place, and that’s why she was punished with never finding the Christ Child. In Russia, they also have a tradition of a similar old woman named "Babouschka", which in Russian, originally meant "grandmother", but has come to mean any old woman. Her story is similar to that of Befana, and may have been inspired by it.
In Sweden, the tradition is somewhat different. They believe that the gifts are brought by a gnome called the "tomte". However, they do not believe that there is a single gnome that brings gifts to all children. Rather, they believe that each household has its own specific gift bearing gnome. They believe that there is a secret underground chamber beneath the floor boards of the house or barn, containing a single gnome. The gnome stays in this underground room throughout the entire year, and comes out only once a year on Christmas Eve to leave gifts for children. Then it returns to its secret room. In Denmark, they use a combination of the Santa Claus and tomte tradition. They believe that the gifts are brought by a Santa Claus type figure named "Julemanden". They also believe that every house has special elves that live in attic called "Jule Nisse" who come out only once a year to assist Julemanden in his duties. On Christmas Eve, children leave out saucers of milk or rice pudding for the Jule Nisse, and find the food gone the next morning. This is another example of pacifying supernatural beings with food. A similar practice gave rise to trick-or-treating on Halloween, with the children representing the supernatural spirits of the dead. In Finland, there was a pagan evil spirit named Joulupukki or "Yule Buck" which was combined with Saint Nicholas, and would bring gifts to children. It was portrayed as a goat-like creature.
In Spain, the gifts are given by the three kings. Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar are traveling through Spain, on their way to Bethlehem, to give gifts to the Christ Child. On their way there, they give gifts to other children also. The gifts are especially given by Balthazar, who rides a donkey, and is a favorite among children. They leave the gifts for children on the Epiphany, January 6, which is supposed to be when they arrived at the manger. On Twelfth Night, children leave their shoes on the window sill filled with straw, barley, and carrots for the two horses, and Balthazar’s donkey. When they wake up the next morning, the stuff they put in them is gone, and the shoes are filled with candy and small toys.
Many of these traditions contain some flaw in their logic. In the traditions of Befana, Babouschka, and the three kings, how can they be on their way to see the Christ Child today, if this supposedly happened 2000 years ago? Sociologists have recognized that if you have a holiday commemorating some mythological event, it’s as if it happens again every year. In Ancient Mesopotamia, they had a holiday about a mythological story where the goddess Ianna descended into the Underworld, and then Tammuz exchanged his life for hers. People got so caught up in the story and the ceremony, it’s as if it happened again every year. Similarly, for some people, it’s as if the story of the Nativity happens again every year.
Another serious problem that exists with almost all of these stories is how can the gift giving character possibly visit so many houses in one night? The major advantage of the Swedish tradition of having your own personal gnome under your house is that it avoids this problem, although their tradition is not without its own illogic. This problem is most apparent with the 20th Century American Santa Claus who is imagined to travel to every house on Earth in one night.
How much time does Santa Claus have to deliver gifts? How many hours of darkness are there between sunset on Christmas Eve, and sunrise on Christmas Day? At any one location, it’s about 12 hours. However, it takes the Earth 24 hours to rotate once, rotating counter-clockwise, always with one half in darkness. Now let’s say you have the International Dateline, with the eastern side on Dec 23, and the western side on Dec 24. Imagine it passes into the night side of the Earth. That’s the first time that somewhere in the world experiences sunset on Dec 24. Then it takes 24 hours for the Earth to rotate once. Then the International Dateline approaches the dark side of the Earth again, this time with eastern side on Dec 24, and the western side on Dec 25. As it enters the dark side, that’s the last time that somewhere in the world experiences sunset on Dec 24. Twelve hours later, that part of the world will leave the night time side, and enter the daytime side. That is the last time that somewhere in the world will experience sunrise on Christmas morning. 24 + 12 = 36 Therefore, there is a 36 hour interval of time in which at least somewhere in the world is experiencing darkness between sunset on Christmas Eve and sunrise on Christmas Day. During the first 12 hours, places in the world are entering darkness. During the middle 12 hours, there are places in the world entering darkness, and other places in the world leaving darkness. During the last 12 hours, there are places in the world leaving darkness. Also, due to the inclination of the Earth, the Sun doesn’t rise at the north pole at all during the winter, so he can leisurely travel back and between the north pole and the inhabited parts of the world, so we can ignore those legs of his journey.
Let’s say Santa Claus spends, on average, five minutes at each house, and five minutes traveling from one house to the next. Then he would only be able to visit six houses in one hour. 36 x 6 = 216. Therefore, he would only be able to visit 216 houses in one night. How many houses with kids are there in countries that have a tradition of a Santa Claus type character delivering gifts on Christmas? Even if you not include large parts of world that don't have Santa Claus, such as China, which is one billion people, it's impossible. Not only that, but it's impossible to even imagine as fantasy. With all fairness, it would have been less ridiculous originally. Throughout most of history, most people spent most of their lives in one village. They were scarcely aware of a world beyond their village. Therefore, kids would imagine the character delivering gifts just to their own village, which would have been possible. When you expand it from one small village to the entire planet, it becomes impossible to imagine.