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Lee Grey
Dec 23, 2024

St. Nicholas of Myra: The Origins of Our Present-day Santa Claus

ON THIS CHISTMAS Eve, Eve, millions of families are preparing to gather together, exchange gifts with their loved ones, and celebrate this magical time of the year. In doing so, there is little doubt that many parents have taken their children to see that old familiar face, Santa Claus.

Sadly, many will never know the origins of this jolly ol’ fellow. They will never know that history tells of a time, long past, of a real person named Saint Nicholas. They will never know that at the heart of his story and embedded within its rich history lies a “tale complete with emperors, knights, villains, shipwrecks, kidnappings, treasure, and dark dungeons.” Santa is the best that man can come up with but Yahweh, He has given us a much more meaningful and rich tradition. It’s a tradition that, ultimately, is rooted in historical truth but also is derived from His love for us. Santa Clause or Saint Nicholas? The origins of our present-day traditions are much richer than man has proclaimed.

Saint Nicholas was a Christian bishop in the fourth century and according to tradition, he lavishly gave gifts to needy children. He was a true legendary hero of the Christian faith and one we, Christians, should study and teach our children about. Born sometime around 280 A.D., Nicholas attended services, prayed, sang hymns, and would study Scripture. He grew up under the shadow of persecution and was taught from an early age that “Christians served Yahweh by serving the less fortunate.”

In his book, The True Saint Nicholas, William Bennett unpacks the motive and heart of Nicholas in this beloved, true story:


"In Patara (an ancient city in Turkey), there lived a family that had fallen on hard times. They had once been wealthy, but misfortunes had overtaken them, and now they were so poor they had barely enough to live on. The father had tried to find work, but when people saw his soft hands, which had never known any kind of hard labor, they took him to be lazy, and turned him away. The man had three daughters of marriageable age, but their chances of finding husbands were grim since the father could offer no dowries (money or property brought by a bride to her husband at marriage). As their financial situation grew desperate, the father realized that the only way to ensure the survival of his children was to sell them into servitude. At least that way they would have enough to eat. When news of the family’s plight reached Nicholas, he at once set about thinking of a way to help them. He remembered Jesus’ teaching that “when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret” (Matthew 6:3-4 ESV). He soon came up with a plan. That night, he put several gold coins into a small bag and started out for the home of the father and his three daughters. The hour was late and the streets deserted when he arrived. Inside the house, the family was sleeping. Nicholas crept up to a window, reached through, and dropped the bag of gold. Then he hurried away before anyone saw him. The next morning the family discovered the bag of gold. Weeping with joy and astonishment, they fell to their knees to thank God for their generous gift. Not only did they have money to live on for some time, there was enough to provide a generous dowry for the oldest daughter, and she was soon married."

Due to the happiness of his secret gift, Nicholas was determined to provide a dowry for the second daughter as well, and then for the third daughter. In the course of providing for the third daughter, the father was consumed with the discovery of this “earthly angel.” Bennett continues the story:


"Night after night [the father] stayed up, waiting and waiting. Finally, late one night, just as he had concluded that their mysterious benefactor had deserted them, a bag of gold came flying through the window. The man rushed out of the house, ran after the shadowy figure that was hurrying away, and caught it by the cloak. When he recognized Nicholas, he fell to his knees and began to kiss the hands that had helped his family so graciously. Nicholas asked him to stand, and told him to thank God instead. He begged the father not to tell anyone the secret of who had left the gold."

We are called to be cheerful givers. Givers of the abundance of what we have been given. Nicholas not only understood this principle, he acted upon it. He understood that it was his duty to provide for those who Yahweh brought into his path. In doing so, he also understood the need to do it in secret.

This “secret” qualifier is the true standard by which our generosity is measured. Are we generous on our own account, attempting to bring glory and honor to ourselves or is our giving rooted in the efforts to point those, not in Christ, to the ultimate gift of security, the cross? May the latter be true of you as we gather together this Christmas season and may our gift-giving be honorable and praiseworthy, not only in light of Saint Nicholas, but in light of the greatest gift-giver of all, Jesus Christ the Lord!


Merry Christmas,


Lee

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"And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.'"

~

(Luke 2:8-14, ESV).


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Sources:

  • Bennett, William J. The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters To Christmas. New York: Howard Books, 2009.

  • Hanegraaff, Hank. The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2009.

  • MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Study Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV). Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.

  • Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.

  • “Scripture notations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”




NOTE: Photo credits go to Cody Bonds @codybonds on YouTube.

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In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of

Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

​

       He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

       He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

       He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

       He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

       He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

       He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

       He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

       He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

       He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

       He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

       He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

       He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

       He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

       For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

       For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

       For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

       For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

       For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

       For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

       For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

       For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

       For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

       He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

       He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

       He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

       He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

       He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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