Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas and Santa Claus

Saint Nicholas is a Greek bishop of ancient Asia Minor known for his charity, his love of children and for working a series of miracles, notably restoring three murdered boys to life. So strong is his miraculous power that, even after his own death, his bones are able to heal those who come into contact with them. In modern times, despite the story of his death, he brings gifts to children in various parts of Europe on Saint Nicholas Eve and Saint Nicholas Day, often being known by a contracted or distorted version of his name, such as Sinterklaas, Samichlaus or Mikulas, and usually with the assistance of a number of different companions.

“The story of St. Nicholas consists almost entirely of a series of beneficent deeds, of aid afforded humanity in distress, accomplished either by St. Nicholas during his lifetime or through his intervention after death” (St. Nicholas, ch. 3 — “The Boy St. Nicholas and St. Nicholas the Patron Saint of Schoolboys”).

Santa Claus is a jolly grandfatherly man who brings gifts to people’s homes every December, eventually doing so on a worldwide scale with the assistance of elves and flying reindeer. The earliest texts that describe him make it quite evident that he is the same man as Saint Nicholas, often explicitly referring to him as Saint Nicholas, but most later texts ignore this connection, with a few even refuting it and stating contradictory origins. His name has also been rendered in English‐language texts as Santa‐Claus, Santaclaus, Sancte Claus, Santeclaus, Saint Claas, Santa Klaus, St.a Claus, Santy Claus, Santaclaw, St. Nick and, specifically in Topsy Turvy Land, Clanty Sauce. Quite a few sources claim, whether directly or by implication, that he is the same man as Father Christmas, but other sources indicate that they are clearly two separate men, having participated in the same adventure at least as early as November 1917 and having met one another by 1922. Similarly, a number of sources claim he is the same person as the Christkind or Krishkinkle, even going so far as to name him Kris Kringle, but a number of other sources explicitly refute this, with one asserting that Santa Claus and Kris Kringle are rather identical twin brothers.

Despite his Greek origins and despite the fact that he delivers gifts to children in multiple countries, Saint Nicholas has become very strongly associated with the Dutch people, connected to his Sinterklaas aspect, and has a particular affinity for them, with his even going so far as speaking fluent Dutch and giving Dutch names—Dunder and Blixem—to two of his reindeer.

The chronicles describe Saint Nicholas as “godes druð” (“Sainte Nicholaes godes druð”).

Origin. It is quite clear from the earliest sources to describe Santa Claus that he is the same person as Saint Nicholas, born in the 3rd century. “All accounts agree, that he was a native of Patara, in Lycia” (Lives of the Primitive Fathers). “Nicholas, citizen of the city of Patras, was born of rich and holy kin, and his father was Epiphanes and his mother Johane. He was begotten in the first flower of their age, and from that time forthon they lived in continence and led an heavenly life” (Golden Legend).

Beginning in the late 19th century, numerous texts appear that make assertions about the origin of Santa Claus that contradict these earliest sources.

According to the 1893 book Poems of Two Worlds, … (“Birth and Adventures of Santa Claus”).

According to the 1902 book The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, ….

According to the 1907 book Santa Claus’ Twin Brother, ….

According to The San Francisco Call and Post on 13 December 1913, … (“Santa Claus’ Visit”).

According to the 1914 book The Rejuvenation of Father Christmas, ….

According to The Ladies’ Home Journal in December 1921, Santa Claus is born and grows up in Cole’s kingdom along with various nursery‐rhyme figures and so is consequently much younger than could be possible based on his earliest appearances. This text asserts that his father is Mr. Claus, the same man as both the Baker and the Pieman, that his mother is Nellie Claus, the daughter of Mother Goose, and that he has younger brothers named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (“There Was a Boy Who Lived on Pudding Lane”). This assertion that Mother Goose is Santa Claus’ maternal grandmother contradicts earlier sources that claim the two are friends rather than relatives (“Message to Mother Goose” and others), as well as the 1881 text (“Marriage of Santa Claus”) and the similar 1899 text (“Christmas Chimes Cantata”) in which Mother Goose accepts Santa Claus’ proposal of marriage.

In “There Was a Boy Who Lived on Pudding Lane,” Santa Claus marries a local woman named Bessie before moving with her to the North Country to become toymakers for the children of the world.

Annual gifting. Saint Nicholas has begun bringing gifts to multiple recipients on Saint Nicholas Day in the Modern Era by 1553, when he hides “Apples, Nuttes, and peares … and other things beſide, / As caps, and ſhooes, and petticotes” in people’s homes while the children “at night in ſenseleſſe ſléepe are caſt,” as documented in a text from the Holy Roman Empire (Popiſh Kingdome, 1570 translation). According to a text from 1593, he and his train go “up and down among the towns and the villages” and enter homes through their shut windows “to convey worldly presents of various kinds” (Feſta Chriſtianorum).

Saint Nicholas presumably delivers these gifts across a large portion of Europe, mostly of the Holy Roman Empire. For a time at least, Saint Michael does the same thing on Michaelmas, but most of his workload seems to have been taken over by Saint Nicholas and shifted later in the year. At some point in the Modern Era, the Christkind begins to bring gifts to children on Christmas Eve, evidently in imitation of Saint Nicholas.

Saint Nicholas apparently travels with certain companions on different legs of his annual trip, e.g. with Krampus in Austria and Hungary, with Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands etc. A number of texts state he delivers his gifts only on the date specified therein, with at least one text even stating he is actually unable to leave the North Pole anytime other than Christmas Eve (Santa Claus’ Daughter).

By December 1810, Saint Nicholas has expanded his gift‐bringing from Europe to North America. The first source to document this lists, with the sole exception of the rod brought for naughty children, only food as being among the gifts he brings. Also, it says nothing about his mode of arrival (New York Spectator). The 1812 edition of A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty states that he travels in a wagon drawn by a horse, evidently a flying horse, in the afternoon of what is presumably Saint Nicholas Day, and that he drops the gifts down the chimney. It also indicates that Saint Nicholas has been bringing gifts to New Netherland since the 17th century and that he is apparently selective as to which households receive gifts. “[I]n the ſylvan days of New‐Amſterdam,” notes the narration, “the good St. Nicholas would often make his appearance, in his beloved city, of a holyday afternoon, riding jollily among the tree tops, or over the roofs of the houſes, now and then drawing forth magnificent preſents from his breeches pockets, and dropping them down the chimnies of his favourites.”

Beginning in 1819, after he has already been giving gifts to children on Saint Nicholas Eve and Saint Nicholas Day for centuries, numerous sources from the United States start to make assertions that Saint Nicholas instead arrives on either New Year’s Eve or Christmas Eve. In the week of 9 January 1819, The Weekly Visitor, and Ladies’ Museum reports that Santaclaus leaves toys and sweets in children’s stockings at New Year’s rather than on his own feast day (“Address of the Carrier”), and a small number of later sources echo this statement for decades. Similarly, in the week of 25 December 1819, Ladies’ Literary Cabinet reports that Santaclaus delivers his presents on Christmas Eve, and moreover that he has been doing so “since ages of chivalry” (“Merry Christmas and Happy New‐Year”). Despite this assertion that his bringing gifts on Christmas Eve has been a longstanding tradition of his, it would seem that Santa Claus, once he has expanded his American operations beyond Dutch families in New Netherland, starts to arrive in the US on a later date than in Europe, although this would not actually be confirmed for decades.

By 1821, Santeclaus travels in a large reindeer‐drawn sleigh rather than a horse‐drawn wagon, and henceforth, it is this mode of transport that he is most often portrayed as using. The text in which this is first documented does not specify the number of reindeer, but the accompanying illustration depicts but one, apparently replacing the singular horse (“Old Santeclaus with much delight”). The horse, however, is not retired and continues to make occasional later appearances, particularly when Saint Nicholas is traveling within Europe. On 23 December 1823, The Troy Sentinel reports that, by this point in time, St. Nicholas is traveling with a team of eight reindeer (“Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas”), and it is only with rare exception thereafter that the reindeer appear in any other number, although teams of four, six, nine, ten and twelve have been recorded.

By 1850, Santa Claus is employing elves in his workshop to manufacture toys (Little Messenger Birds).

Since the earliest record of Saint Nicholas’ bringing gifts to children on a large scale, and particularly since his expanding this endeavor to North America, a number of texts have appeared offering contradictory explanations for his adopting the tradition.

According to The Ladies’ Home Journal in December 1921, young Santa Claus, already an adept toymaker, is inspired to give toys away after a heroic episode saving the children of Cole’s kingdom from the Pied Piper, breaking the Piper’s spell by promising them toys. Later, it is King Cole who, at the request of Mother Goose, allows Santa to continue to give toys away indefinitely, rather than to have to sell them for a living, by granting him a free toy business with free lodging on the condition that he move to the North Country. Santa marries a local woman named Bessie and they leave for the North Country on their wedding day, taken in a sleigh pulled by reindeer to a gorgeous house (“a great, wide, low building, furnished in log furniture and bearskins, and with a fire blazing in every room!”), all of which originally belonged to King Cole, and the two make toys for the children of the world thereafter. No mention is made of elves (“There Was a Boy Who Lived on Pudding Lane”).

Though not directly stated, it is implied that the Queen of Hearts is married to King Cole rather than to the King of Hearts (or perhaps that the King of Hearts and King Cole are the same person). The Baker, the Pieman, the Queen of Hearts, King Cole and Mother Goose are all pivotal to Santa’s acquisition of his gift‐giving job, as King Cole helps Santa partly in thanks for the Baker’s/Pieman’s instructing the Queen in making tarts.

Height, counterparts.

Nature. The earliest sources to describe him give no indication that Saint Nicholas, despite his miraculous powers, is anything other than a normal human being, and the historical record is clear that he eventually dies in the 4th century; nevertheless, he brings gifts to children the world over in the Modern Era, centuries after his supposed death. Although it is true that one text does apparently portray him as a spirit that inhabits and animates a statue (Conte de Noël), nearly all the later texts portray him as just as corporeal a man as in antiquity. The simple solution to this apparent discrepancy is of course that there must be worlds in which Saint Nicholas has died and worlds in which he has not; however, there are also suggestions in some texts that Santa Claus may instead be some sort of imp or elf or fairy, possibly even an impostor who is not Saint Nicholas at all.

Relationships. Shortly after becoming bishop of Myra, Nicholas “eschewed company of women” (Golden Legend), but centuries later, on 29 December 1815, in an ordinance of his own writing published in The New‐York Evening Post in which he describes himself as an “arch‐emperor” rather than a bishop, Sanctus Nicholas plainly states that his consort is the Empress “Santa Claus,” the authoress of a proclamation published the day before, 28 December. Although almost never portrayed thereafter as a queen or empress, Mrs. Santa Claus proves a loyal and helpful spouse over the subsequent years and bears Santa Claus quite a few children, including Kitty Claus, Bertha, Fritz, and the lineup of six bearded boys appearing in Life in the week of 3 December 1914.

With Father Christmas and the Christkind. In the 19th century, Santa Claus starts to become so strongly associated with Christmas, rather than his own feast day, that multiple texts erroneously call him either Father Christmas or some variation on the name of the Christkind (e. g., Krishkinkle, Kriss Kringle). Especially when Father Christmas himself begins to give gifts, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell to which man a given text is referring or illustration is depicting, and there even seem to be worlds in which the two are in fact the same man. Also, Santa Claus seems to evidently give some of his gifts on behalf of the Christkind, and later even goes so far as to confusingly adopt the name for himself. In February 1847, The Child’s Friend documents how Santa Claus tells a girl that, on a future visit, “ he would leave some things which the ‘Christ‐Child’ sent. ” In 1897, Santa Claus says that even his wife “Sometimes … coolly calls me ‘Sir Kriss Kringle’” (Santa Claus, Kriss Kringle, or St. Nicholas).

With Mother Goose.

Locales. Over the hundreds of years Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus, has been delivering gifts and having his numerous adventures, he has been to nearly every continent on Earth—certainly to Asia, Europe, North America, Africa and Australia—as well as to the Arctic, El‐Fay‐Gno‐Land, Burzee, the Laughing Valley of Hohaho, the Land of Oz, Topsy Turvy Land, Cole’s kingdom and evidently Mother Goose Land and other fairylands and dreamlands. His adventures have also brought him to the moon, to Mars and to other locations across interplanetary space. However, his principal residence and base of gift‐giving operations is limited to a handful of locations, depending on the time in his life and the historical source being consulted.

In antiquity, Nicholas spends all his time in the Near East, specifically in Asia Minor but for an excursion to the Holy Land; as a child, he lives in Patara with his parents and later is ordained a bishop in Myra, and he is documented as visiting a few other Anatolian locations. Where he lives, if anyplace, throughout the Middle Ages and in the early Modern Era is unclear.

When Saint Nicholas begins giving gifts on a large scale in the 16th century, it is within the Holy Roman Empire, suggesting he might live there by that time, although no text actually states this. It seems unlikely, however, that he would still live in Anatolia as it had since fallen to the Islamic conquests and become the heart of the Ottoman Empire. Even as late as the first half of the 19th century, numerous texts refer to Santa Claus’ tradition of giving gifts but very few mention his residence, saying at most that he has a house or den or workshop but without revealing where it is.

Although no text explicitly states it, Santa Claus may have some local satellite office in New York City to serve as an American base of operations. An 1812 text, describing Saint Nicholas’ activities in the 17th century after he has already expanded his gifting to North America, asserts that New Amsterdam is “ his beloved city ” (History of New York), and in December 1815, Sanctus Nicholas and his wife submit a proclamation and two ordinances to a New York City newspaper for publication with all three documents indicating New York City authorship, as if it were the couple’s home (New‐York Evening Post). And in January 1842, Merry’s Museum refers to New York as the place “ where Santaclaus is supposed to be at home ” (“ Christmas ”).

By 1850, Saint Nicholas has moved to sunny Spain and it is therefrom he leaves annually to deliver his presents, as initially documented in a book which explicitly refers to him as the “ Bisschop van Spanje ” (bishop from Spain) (St. Nikolaas en zijn knecht).

Beginning in the latter half of the 19th century, however, a number of sources start to hint that Santa Claus instead has his base of operations at the North Pole or at least some point in or near the Arctic Circle. In the week of 26 December 1857, for example, Santa‐Claus is said to live “ In a wonderful house of snow ” in what is evidently a snowy and icy environment, although an Arctic location is not specified (“ Wonders of Santa‐Claus ”). In 1863, conversely, Santa Claus tells of how snowbanks at the North Pole have delayed his deliveries but doesn’t specifically state it is because he lives there : “ I’ve been ducked up to the chin in some master great snow‐banks—there by the North Pole! This is the very first time the storms have come so heavy as to cover over the end of the North Pole! ” (“ Prudy’s Christmas ”). In the week of 29 December 1866, however, an engraving in Harper’s Weekly confirms that Santa Claus has indeed relocated to the North Pole (“ N. P. ”) in a place called Santa‐Claussville (“ Santa Claus and His Works ” [HathiTrust]). Thereafter, the great majority of texts that make any mention of Santa Claus’ residence or workplace indicate an Arctic or subarctic locale, although a small subset of texts continue to maintain that Saint Nicholas lives in Spain, and a very small subset of texts instead maintain that Santa Claus has moved to the Laughing Valley of Hohaho by 1902.

This Arctic or subarctic settlement where Santa Claus, his family and his employees live is variously portrayed in different sources as constituting only a handful of structures, a village, a city or an entire kingdom, and is known most often as Santa Claus Land (Santa Claus Land, 1873, and others) but also as Santa‐Claussville (“ Santa Claus and His Works, ” 29 Dec. 1866), Santa Clausville (Santa Claus and His Works, 1869), the Kingdom of the North Pole (Santa Claus’ Daughter, 1892), Northland (Christmas Snowflake, 1903), Santa Land (Santa Has the Grippe, 1907, and others) and the North Country (“ There Was a Boy Who Lived on Pudding Lane, ” Dec. 1921).

Developments. Around 400, the Praxis de stratelatis recounts an episode from the 4th century wherein Bishop Nicholas of Myra ….

The reindeer Cupid is not to be confused with the Roman god of the same name who is the son of Venus. The reindeer Comet is not to be confused with the MLJ character, the Comet. And the reindeer Flossie is not to be confused with the Tooth Fairy.

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Public‐domain bibliography

Of Sinterklaas and Santa Claus.

Of Saint Nicholas.

See “The Literary Development of the ‘Life’ of St Nicholas of Myra (= Santa Claus),” by Roger Pearse, 3 Feb. 2015, and multiple pages on the St. Nicholas Center site, for early appearances. — Scott Norsworthy, “Santa Claus Comes on New Year’s Eve,” Melvilliana, 31 Dec. 2017.

Mrs. Santa Claus is, by most accounts, the wife of Santa Claus, who carries out a number of tasks to help him ahead of his annual gifting trips and who has, on at least a few occasions, also accompanied him thereon. The couple have been married at least since 27 December 1815, possibly since the 10th century, and they are the parents of Kitty Claus, of Bertha and Fritz, and of a number of other offspring. Mrs. Claus’ real name is almost never mentioned, but a text from 1897 states it is Kreche Kindly and texts from December 1921 and December 1922 state it is Bessie. A few sources suggest that Mrs. Santa Claus and Mother Christmas may be the same woman, but insofar as Santa Claus and Father Christmas are certainly two different men, so must their respective wives be different women, and that Mrs. Santa Claus and the feminine personification of Christmas are indeed two different women is most clearly demonstrated when they participate in the same adventure together on at least two occasions (in 1892 and 1905). (Two texts claim that Santa Claus is instead married to Mother Goose rather than to Mrs. Claus.)

On 27 December 1815, The New‐York Evening Post announces that a proclamation by Santa Claus will be published in a forthcoming issue, stating that the manuscript therefor was submitted “in a lady’s hand writing,” and when it is published the very next day, 28 December, the authoress refers to herself therein as “Santa Clause, Queen and Empress of handsome girls, women married and unmarried, not excepting ugly girls, and old maids of all sorts, phizzes, sizes and descriptions,” and signs the proclamation, spelling her name slightly differently, “Santa‐Claus[,] Queen and Empress of the Court of Fashions.”

Texts from 28, 29 and 30 December 1815 explicitly describe the wife of Sanctus Nicholas as a queen and empress (“Proclamation” and others), but this circumstance receives little corroboration in later texts. Even when an 1892 play portrays Santa Claus as “Ruler of the Kingdom of the North Pole,” that his wife would therefore logically be the queen goes unmentioned (Santa Claus’ Daughter).

Two stories (“There Was a Boy Who Lived on Pudding Lane” and “The Great Adventure of Mrs. Santa Claus”) give Mrs. Santa Claus the name Bessie.

In “The Marriage of Santa Claus,” Santa Claus is portrayed as a lonely bachelor trying to determine the best candidate to be his wife. Concluding it should be someone who loves children as much as he does, he rushes off to propose to Mother Goose. After she accepts, the reindeer immediately carry her and her “children” (numerous nursery‐rhyme and fairy‐tale figures) to live in Santa Claus’ “great palace,” apparently before even any wedding ceremony. The 1899 story “Christmas Chimes Cantata” presents a very similar story.

Of a girl called Miss Santa Claus

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