However, before we get on to his time as Bishop, it is important to discuss the context of the events about to come. When Nicholas was born, he would be born into the greatest chaos that the Roman Empire had ever experienced: the Crisis of the 3rd Century (235 - 284). However, thanks to a series of soldier emperors, the Empire would be saved. Under the last of these emperors, Emperor Diolection, the Empire was better managed. Eventually, it was divided into 4 parts, becoming known as a Tetrarchy system. This is because Diolection knew that the Empire was way too big for one single Emperor to rule over, a thing proven multiple times during the 3rd Century Crisis.

As the head Emperor of the Tetrarchy, Diolection could basically do whatever he wanted. So, when one random Christian insulted Diolection’s pagan practices randomly one day, he erupted in fury and started the Great Persecutions in 303. Seeing as Nicholas was next door to Diolection's direct territory and the Bishop of Myra, he would be one of the victims of these persecutions. Dragged away from his home, he would be brutally tortured. But Diolection would retire soon after in 305, leaving an Empire without its leader, and the Tetrarchy fell into civil war. This civil war would drag on for almost an entire decade, however, the victor of the war would be the son of one of the original Tetrarchs, Constantine I. Constantine, seeing the ghastly horrors of the Great Persecutions, decided to legalize Christendom and convert to it himself. With Christianity on top, Nicholas would be freed around the same time Constantine came to power (324).

As a freeman, Nicholas would go on to do more good for this world. From freeing innocent people from execution to guiding Emperor Constantine on how to handle corrupt generals in military operations afar. Along the way, he would even survive sailing through a storm en route (literally impossible back then) to Jerusalem to check out the new churches built there; these many achievements gained him notoriety. Being nominated as the patron saint of sailors, merchants, children, archers, students, and so much more.

However, the biggest historical influence Nicholas would ever have was when he attended the Council of Nicaea in 325, a council that would attempt to unify the Christian world. Of course, this meetup wouldn't do so in the historical sense; as fellow Christians fought with each other over what was true and false about the divinity of Jesus Christ, leading to the event of Nicholas Will-Smithing someone in the face.

Throughout the rest of his life (until December 6th, 343) he would do many great things, such as becoming a saint within four centuries of his death and getting an entire holiday dedicated to him from Catholics in France in the 1200s. However, his legacy and his name wouldn't be known until a millennia later.

How He Got Famous

As mentioned previously, in the 1200s, Catholics in France had added Nicholas into one of their holidays, called Feast Day (Dec 6th). Saint Nicholas would then be adopted by many other European cultures as Christianity washed over the continent after the fall of the Roman Empire. Father Christmas was created in England during the reign of Henry VII (the King of England at the time) and the schism between the Churches of England and the Catholic Church. As England no longer kept the feast day of December 6th, to break away from the customs of all of the other Europeans on the mainland, Father Christmas' celebration was moved to the 25th of December to coincide with Christmas Day. However, this holiday and Father Christmas itself would fall into obscurity in the coming centuries.

But, thanks to a Victorian revival of Christmas which included Father Christmas as an emblem of joyful cheer, Santa Claus came back to the public spotlight. John Leech's illustration of the "Ghost of Christmas Present" in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843) leads us to a Santa Claus we could sorta recognize today.

This version of Santa Claus would also be adopted by the American poet Thomas Nast in his poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” in 1863, a time of much gloom in America because of the ongoing Civil War. However, Saint Nicholas would help out during this time of gloom by officially appearing in the form most recognized today: the jolly, red-coated, gift-giving, and very patriotic man that is Santa Claus. This version built up to the actual modern-day Santa Claus himself, the one that most see in malls.

And that is the origins of Santa Claus, the person himself, and how he became a Christmas symbol.

By Chuheng Wen from 804 and his anonymous partner