Once a year, all children who celebrate Christmas write a faithful Christmas list. This list is supposedly sent to the North Pole, where Santa Claus and his elves will design and manufacture each toy on the list. However, as we grow older, we will learn by ourselves, or someone will tell us: Santa Claus is not real. But where did this legend come from? Who did it start with? Was it purely for the benefit of capitalist businesses here in the United States? In this short article, I will answer all these questions and more.

Before Christianity

Before Christianity spread worldwide, many pagan cultures celebrated the winter solstice, especially pagan cultures in Scandinavia. The most well-known pagan celebration was Yule, the tradition of celebrating the winter solstice. There are many other celebrations of Christmas in pagan cultures, like Yule, and they all sort of follow the same principles. The winter solstice was a time when you could gorge yourself on festive foods like bread, meat, or sweets. If you got lucky, the adults generally drank beer until they were slurring their words, and people did not stay faithful to their wives or husbands during the winter solstice. It also includes some gift- giving but it was less focused on that than Christmas today.

These traditions also had gods of Christmas or simply gods they worshiped during Christmas. For example, Odin or Thor weren’t the gods of the winter solstice; they were just worshiped during this time. When Christianity started spreading throughout the world, they deemed these kinds of traditions “unholy” or “sinful,” so when celebrating the birth of Christ or Christmas on December 25th, the traditions changed vastly to a more religion-focused celebration. 

Old Saint Nick 

During the third century, Old Saint Nick rose in popularity. He died on December 6th, AD 343, which is now celebrated as Saint Nicholas Day. Saint Nick was originally a bishop of Myra who was well known for his generosity, as proved by many legends from the time. As legend goes, he saved three women from becoming prostitutes by providing them with the money for a dowry (a fee the father pays to the husband) or saving a little boy from being abducted and enslaved by Arab pirates. Long story short, Nicholas, the bishop of Myra, was known for his generosity and kindness. When the Protestant Reformation began, most people in Europe were banned from celebrating saints, including Saint Nicholas. 

This is when the paths diverge, and Germany, the Netherlands, and England all came up with their own changes to Saint Nicholas so that he can still be celebrated. These changes are essentially how you would copy someone’s homework: same answer, slightly different process. Christkindl from Germany was personified as a young girl looking like she walked right out of a fairytale, wearing a white dress with gold features. She is also known as Kris Kringle, and the Germanic celebrations are known for bratwursts, glühwein, and pretzels, along with the traditional gifts for children. 

Father Christmas in England is essentially our current-day Santa with more of a pronounced focus on the holiday cheer and good company rather than the food or gifts. He wore a green coat with brown fur trim and had reindeer similar to those of pagan tradition. Later, he was brought to America, and his suit changed to red and white, and he was given a large bag of presents. 

The real originator of American Santa Claus is actually the Dutch version of Sinterklaas. He was originally celebrated on December 5th when he could ride over from Spain by boat and give out presents and treats to children who left carrots out for his white horse. Sinterklaas was adorned with a red bishop’s cape and miter. The celebration of Sinterklaas was much more performance-based, with parades throughout the area and poems written for him.

Although this celebration seems harmless and enjoyable, there is a factor that is incredibly racist: the Black Peters. The origins of Black Peter are debated by scholars, with some saying he was a freed black man who helped Sinterklaas, or he was a white man who got soot on him from going down chimneys to deliver presents. Regardless, in today’s time, Sinterklaas still has a black Peter. This black Peter is typically a Dutch person doing blackface and dressing up in medieval wear. This tradition was thankfully abandoned once it reached America. 

Santa in America 

The paths joined together again in America when the Dutch Sinterklaas arrived first with the red bishop cape and presents. As more people started immigrating to America, the German Christkindl and the English Father Christmas got mixed together and baked into Santa Claus. Three authors are attributed to the creation of American Santa Claus: Washington Irving and two anonymous writers. Historians debate the identities of these two writers. The general consensus is that it was either Clement Clarke Moore or Henry Livingston Jr. These authors created the holy trinity of Christmas books, consisting of A History of New York, published in 1809, Old Santeclaus with Much Delight, published in 1821, and A Visit from St. Nicholas, published in 1823. 

These books and poems shaped Santa Claus as we know him today, with descriptions of his belly that jiggles like a bowl full of jelly, in addition to giving names to the reindeer that pull his flying sleigh, and his love for cookies and milk. One very common misconception is that Coca-Cola made Santa Claus wear a red suit; this, however, is not true. I previously mentioned how some versions had green coats or white dresses. After these books were released, they didn’t have any real specifications on the suit; just that it was brown and made out of fur. So, in 1848, when Henry M. Onderdonk released the illustrated version of A Visit from Saint Nicholas, and in his partnership with Theodore C. Boyd, who made woodcuttings for the story, the suit turned brown. When the book was published by the L. Prang and Company publishing press, they had little quality control. And the brown ink became red due to a manufacturing error, giving Santa his now well-known red coat. Later in the 1900s, Coca-Cola did make advertisements with Santa Claus, but they did not “turn his suit red.”

Today 

Santa hasn’t changed much since the 1800s and most likely won’t for many centuries. The most important things to remember about him are that his suit isn’t red because of Coca-Cola, Saint Nicholas was known for being generous, and that the Dutch version of him was the first to arrive in America. Lastly, enjoy the folklore surrounding him.