Christmas Messages from our family to yours.
Santa Claus is real. And this is his true story.
2009 years ago Christ was born.
1729 years ago, not too long after the days that Jesus Christ walked the earth, A boy called Nicholas was born to wealthy parents in the tiny village of Patara in the country we today call Turkey.
Nicholas was a child of wealthy parents. He was raised a Christian and at a very young age was devoted to the faith.
Nicholas’ parents died while he was a boy. Not knowing what to do with himself or the fortune he inherited, he turned to his Bible and in Matthew 19:21 read the words of admonishment that Christ gave to a wealthy man: “Sell all thou hath and give it to the poor and follow me”.
Nicholas went to his village priest, repented of his sins and expressed the desires of his heart. He wished to become a priest.
Because he was an orphan, the priest took him in. And soon he found that Nicholas was no ordinary boy. Legend tells the story of a young Nicholas visiting the Holy Land with his village priest. On the return voyage, over stormy waters, their ship was cast about and all aboard feared for their lives. Nicholas steadfastly prayed for the safety of the passengers and crew. Abruptly, the storm ended and the waters calmed. Nicholas’s story of faith began.
The village priest loved of Nicholas. But he knew Nicholas lacked the education and the credentials necessary to become a priest. He would need a miracle if it was to happen. And a miracle is just what he got.
In the not too distant city of Myra, the Bishop of the church passed away. As the authorities of the church assembled to consider his replacement, Nicholas was there. The man considered wisest amongst the authorities had a dream and was visited by a heavenly messenger. He inquired of the angel “Who should the new Bishop be?”. The angel said that if the gathered authorities would just wait by the door of the church they should select the first person to walk through the doors. In walked Nicholas. The church authorities had their answer, and Nicholas had his miracle and was named the youngest bishop of the church ever on record. And he wasn’t even a priest first.
As a young Bishop, Nicholas was fearless in his defense of the faith. He became known as an outspoken caretaker of the people of his flock and as one very close to God. Once, when the citizens of Myra came to him to complain of a difficult tax burden, he approached the Emperor for relief. The Roman emperor Diocletian, who was not Christian and who had previously cast Nicholas into prison for his vigorous public defense of Christianity, was moved to write a decree lowering the tax due to Bishop Nicholas’ pleas on behalf of the people.
Nicholas was beloved of the people of Myra for his kindness, most especially to children. One such deed became a legend that has survived for centuries and is celebrated even now in a variety of cultures. In his town where he presided, Bishop Nicholas once gave an anonymous gift to a man with three daughters. The family was very poor. The custom of the time was that each daughter would need to be provided with a dowry or money in order to marry. Because they were poor, the father of the three daughters could not provide dowry’s, and was contemplating selling his daughters into slavery since he couldn’t afford to keep them.
Bishop Nicholas heard of their plight and on a dark night soon after the eldest daughter came to marrying age, he tossed a small bag of gold through an open window of the poor man’s house ( some say he tossed it down the chimney), providing her dowry and sparing her a life of misery.
As the second daughter came of age he repeated the deed, again doing so anonymously.
As the third daughter came of age the father waited up nights to catch the gift-giver in order to express his gratitude. His persistence paid off as he caught Bishop Nicholas in the act, and the story was told.
This story is recounted in many lands, although some of the details change from one telling to another. Some say it was not bags of gold but rather balls of gold that Nicholas left. Some say he tossed them into the chimney where they landed in the hanging stockings or the drying shoes of the unmarried girls. That is why some, to remember this event even to this day, celebrate Christmas by placing an orange in the toe of children’s stockings.
Nicholas was known for many such deeds. Many miracles were attributed to the Bishop of Myra because of his great faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So famous did Nicholas become that no other name in the church, save Jesus only, was so widely known or respected. More than 2000 churches in the Old World bore the name of Saint Nicholas. And his legend only grew as the centuries passed.
Bishop Nicholas died on December 6, 343 AD, in Myra.
About this same time, the Roman Emperor Constantine, the first Christian emperor, established December 25 as the recognized birthday of Jesus Christ, although it was known this was not the correct day. The Romans already had a feast day on the 25th, and the new Christian Romans were anxious to place special Christian days over the old pagan feast days. The 25th also happened to coincide with the Yule celebration of the northern Europeans.
Over the centuries, St. Nicholas celebrated the birth of Christ by the giving of gifts to children, on December 6. This custom became well established in the Germanic countries of Europe. Children hung their stockings over the fireplace on December 5, and St. Nicholas would, if they were good children, fill them with treats and toys. In some countries, like Holland, children set their shoes out to be filled instead. Saint Nicholas would frequently slip into the house through the chimney.
In the 16th century during the reformation, newly created Protestants were uncomfortable celebrating saint days, and the stories and traditions about St. Nicholas became unpopular. But children still wanted presents, and since December 6 is close to December 25, the custom of giving gifts to children gradually moved to Christ’s birthday. On the 24th of December, Christmas Eve, gifts were now brought by the Christ Child, or Christkind, or Kris Kringle, in Germany, Father Christmas in England, Pere Noel in France, or Sinterklaus, which is Dutch for Saint Nicholas, in the Netherlands.
Now, you may not know that the Dutch people of the Netherlands are descended from the Norwegian Vikings. As we all know, Norway is inhabited by a lot of elves and fairies. At Christmas, the Norwegians liked to have their feasts undisturbed by their animals, so they enlisted the aid of elves known as Nisse to watch over their animals in the barn. On Christmas Eve, the Julenisse helped out by bringing presents to the children. The Nisse, being elves, must always be paid for their services with a special food treat, risengrynsgrøt, or rice porridge, which is left in the barn for them. If you don’t leave them the special treat, you will be considered naughty and the Julenisse might play tricks on you like giving you a lump of coal for a present.
In Norway there is a lot of snow and winter is very cold. For many months of the year, the Norwegians had to use sleighs to get around instead of wagons. Horses can’t live so close to the North Pole, but, of course, the Norwegians also had, and still have, reindeer to pull their sleighs.
When the Dutch settled New Amsterdam, later called New York, in the Americas, they brought their Christmas customs with them. Christmas trees and Sinterklass. Sinterklass was later anglicized to Santa Claus as we know him today. From old Norwegian Dutch custom, he is a jolly old elf, dresses in red furs, and rides around in a magic sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer. In 1808, Henry Livingston described Saint Nick, or Sinterklass, from a chance meeting on Christmas Eve. He even managed to get the names of the reindeer, which are both Dutch and English. In 1823, Clement Clark Moore wrote a famous poem about this event called the ‘Night Before Christmas’.
Santa Claus, as all children know, lives in reindeer country near the North Pole during the off-season. Probably near the village of Nordkapp or North Cape, just off E69 at the northernmost tip of Norway.
It is still generally considered a good idea to leave a special food treat for the old elf on Christmas Eve, but today it is cookies and milk, not porridge.
The birth of Jesus Christ created Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas became Sinterklass who became Santa Claus, and Santa Claus became an American. He is recognized as the Christmas gift giver around the world, along with his counterparts, the Christkind, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas and Pere Noel. And every child under the age of 5 knows he is real.
So children, if you want that special visitor to come to your house on Christmas Eve, the safest thing for you is to do as the Savior would have you do, all year if you can.
And you older children and moms and dads, never doubt that Santa is real. He is the embodiment of Jesus Christ, the greatest of all gift givers.
Christ came bringing Heavenly Father’s gospel, or good news, to mankind. He brought us the gifts of baptism and repentance. He brought us the gift of the atonement. He brought us the supreme gift of life everlasting.
Deep in our souls, we all want to be like Christ, and on his birthday, we too want to bring gifts to those we love and those we do not know, because we are charged with loving all our brothers and sisters. Whenever we give in celebration of Christmas, we also are also giving to our eldest brother, Jesus Christ.
Be generous this Christmas. Santa is real. He lives in all of us, and he will never leave us.
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