I’ve decided I like Saint Nicholas better than Santa Claus. Is that shocking? Or do you assume they are the same?
I am of course talking about Santa and Saint Nick as characters in our Christmas mythology. The first difference is that unlike Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas was a real person. Born in the fourth century of Greek descent in what is now Turkey, Nicholas was a devout follower of Jesus, became the Catholic bishop of Myra, and was known for his kindness and acts of generosity. He was canonized a saint in 1446, and is remembered in the West on December 6. He is known as the patron saint and protector of children, as well as sailors, unmarried persons, brewers and even repentant thieves. He was particularly interested in helping those in need, the sick and the suffering.
The tradition of hanging stockings came from his life. Nicholas was born into a wealthy family, but his parents died when he was young. He used his inheritance to help those in need. One instance of that was when three girls in their early teens lacked the dowry they needed so they could get married. Girls married in their early teen years back then. Nicholas saw their plight and used the money from his inheritance to provide a dowry for each of them, throwing a bag of gold through the window of the home on three different occasions. Some of the gold fell into either shoes or socks drying near the window. Because he provided gold, the implication was that they would each marry well; the greater the dowry the higher quality of man willing to marry a girl. Nicholas is a man I can admire!
When Dutch settlers immigrated to New York, they brought with them their reverence of Saint Nicholas and his Feast Day. He was known to them as Sinterklaas, which eventually became crystallized as Santa Claus by the 1800’s. By 1820, Santa Claus had become commercialized. No longer was it about revering the bishop who showed compassion and expressed the Christ-spirit by giving gifts to children throughout the year; Christmas was becoming about parents and other family members giving gifts to children—and each other only in December. Over the decades the cost and size of the gifts has grown – and become detached from compassion. It’s sometimes seen as just a duty.
Santa Clause and his surrogates make it known that the gifts go to “good little boys and girls.” But who decides whether any particular child is good or bad? No child can have been bad throughout the entire year. No child can have NEVER broken any rules (and been bad) throughout the year. It’s very all-or-nothing thinking. But it’s a great way to instill shame in every boy and girl. Santa is even known to know whether you are sleeping or whether you are awake. What else might he be watching you do?
Good boys and girls follow the rules. This idea began in the 1800s when children were expected to be seen and not heard; they were seen as little adults. Even adults lived their lives in very conventional ways. Gender and socio-economic roles were well-defined. Living one’s life outside those well-proscribed roles would have put one on Santa’s Naughty list. So being good meant being conventional.
There was a pervasive belief back then, that seems to be gaining in popularity now, that God loves some people but not other people, based on how well they follow the rules. If a person follows the rules well, God blesses them. If they are rebellious and don’t follow the rules, the result is poverty. So you can tell how moral someone is based on how prosperous they are. People who are poor are seen as unworthy, not even deserving help.
We’ve gone from Saint Nicholas giving to the poor out of his abundance, without causing shame, to
Santa Claus giving good gifts only to those good children who deserve them while punishing/humiliating those children who aren’t “deserving” by giving cheap toys or things they needed anyway. The very idea that they had needs that weren’t being met becomes proof they aren’t as good as the other (richer) kids. It translates to poor people not being as good/approved of/deserving as others. It’s ironic that the people who Saint Nicholas was most concerned with are the very people who are being hurt by our consumeristic version of Christmas. This commercialized version of Christmas is not an equal-opportunity holiday.
I’m not suggesting that everyone should start giving cheap gifts to our loved ones. But maybe we can each search for ways to return to the kindness and compassion of Saint Nicholas. He wasn’t just kind in December but sought out ways to demonstrate the love of the Jesus he worshiped, whose birthday we celebrate, throughout the year. He saw Jesus as the Christ, and as such, he expressed that Christ-likeness, especially to those who were the most vulnerable. He did not consider himself (or his parents) to be better because they had a lot of money. Instead, he used that money to improve the lives of those in need.
May we all follow the tradition of Saint Nicholas this Christmas season.
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