St. Nicholas vs Santa

Do you ever wonder where Santa Claus originated from? 

Who St. Nicholas is? 

How they both came to be?

Here is what I learned from an article I found online. 

St. Nicholas was a saint born in the third century and is both a man and a legend, as many saints are; performing kind tasks like helping the poor with his wealthy inheritance and then also being credited with praying to raise people from the dead.

It is said that his wealthy parents died when he was young leaving him a large inheritance. "Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man."

Because he is credited with finding three young children who had been captured by an evil butcher and bringing them back to life by praying for them he is known as a protector of children.

It is always interesting to me to how traditions are started. For example: There is a story of St. Nicholas throwing a bag of gold through the window of young lady who needed a dowry to marry. The gold landed in her shoes or stockings that were hung by the fire to dry. Hence children began leaving stockings out hoping to get a gift from St. Nicholas. Through the years the story evolved from gold coins to gold balls, thus parents started putting oranges in kids' stockings. Ask your grandpa! Only they put them out on the day he died, December 6th (ironically the day I decided to write this post!) To read more of this article click here. 

I am sure you can already see the similarities between St. Nik and Santa:) But there is more to the story of Santa and how he came to be, especially how he evolved from the giver of gifts to the poor and needy to the commercial Santa we now are familiar with.

He transformation began in 1821 with a book called Children's Friend. Where he would bring safe toys and books to good children and a long, black birchen rod to bad children so their parents could punish them. But instead of coming on Dec 6th he now showed up on Christmas Eve. Then in 1823 he had a make-over in the poem "The Night Before Christmas."

"By the end of the 1920s, a standard American Santa—life-sized in a red, fur-trimmed suit—had emerged from the work of N. C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and other popular illustrators. In 1931 Haddon Sundblom began thirty-five years of Coca-Cola Santa advertisements that popularized and firmly established this Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture.

"By the 1950s Santa was turning up everywhere as a benign source of beneficence, endorsing an amazing range of consumer products. This commercial success led to the North American Santa Claus being exported around the world where he threatens to overcome the European St. Nicholas, who has retained his identity as a Christian bishop and saint.

"It's been a long journey from the Fourth Century Bishop of Myra, St. Nicholas, who showed his devotion to God in extraordinary kindness and generosity to those in need, to America's jolly Santa Claus, whose largesse often supplies luxuries to the affluent (A bit ironic, don't you think, considering the mission of St. Nicholas.). However, if you peel back the accretions, he is still Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, whose caring surprises continue to model true giving and faithfulness.

"There is growing interest in reclaiming the original saint in the United States to help restore a spiritual dimension to this festive time. For indeed, St. Nicholas, lover of the poor and patron saint of children, is a model of how Christians are meant to live. A bishop, Nicholas put Jesus Christ at the center of his life, his ministry, his entire existence. Families, churches, and schools are embracing true St Nicholas traditions as one way to claim the true center of Christmas—the birth of Jesus. Such a focus helps restore balance to increasingly materialistic and stress-filled Advent and Christmas seasons."

An interesting note on the timeline here for those who are familiar with Church History... We believe that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in the spring of 1820. The heavens had opened again and communication from God to a prophet was restored as well as many truths of the gospel that had been lost. The very next year, in 1821, the observance of St. Nicholas, who was celebrated by "simple gift-giving in early Advent [to] help preserve a Christmas Day focus on the Christ Child" was moved to Christmas Eve, beginning the decent to a more commercial Christmas. And then just a few years later in 1823, when the prophet Joseph would be shown the Golden Plates for the first time, which would be translated into The Book of Mormon, Santa would have his complete make-over and threaten to replace Christ as the reason for the season. Pretty crazy, right? I can only believe, although Santa is not evil in any way, that sometimes the adversary uses good things to distract us from what is actually important. And moving the observance of St. Nicholas to Christmas Eve, instead of Dec. 6th was just the beginning.


Of course Santa has permeated our culture and there is no way to erase him (my kids are much too aware and maybe used in the right light can be good;) but we can still find ways to make Santa less commercial. One of the ways we are trying is by telling the kids that this year we aren't asking Santa for anything. We have so much. Instead we are asking Santa to give our portion to the poor as well as being his helper and doing our part like the original St. Nicholas did.

I can't say that he won't be bringing them anything, but I can't have them distracted by it. Instead, I am leaving it up to Santa to know what is in their hearts and to bring them what he knows they will love. Careful parents will have been listening to and watching their children all year and would know, like Santa or God would, what would be best to give. If you are lost, pray about it. Our Heavenly Father loves to give good gifts and will direct you! You will probably find that the gifts are less commercial and more meaningful to your children after all and probably not something that will easily be forgotten or tossed aside to unwrap other gifts.

Hope you found this helpful and as interesting as I did! Maybe you knew all this already, but I learned a lot. It also kind of confirmed what I had been feeling for a while now.

Love you all! Merry Christmas and God bless!