Playing Santa

I'm not a fan of Santa. I think I've made that clear. So if someone said, "Hey, Stan, will you play Santa this year at ____?", I'd likely pass. On the other hand, who was the real Santa?

Nicholas of Myra, a saint in the Roman Catholic tradition, lived in Turkey in the 3rd-4th century AD. Nicholas, as it turns out, was an interesting fellow. His sainthood was procured by means of a miracle, they say. During a famine, a butcher killed three people and intended to sell them as meat, but Nicholas saw through the crime and resurrected the three.

When Diocletian ruled and ordered the end of Christianity, Nicholas kept preaching Christ and went to jail for it. Released when Constantine took power, Nicholas was at the Council of Nicaea when the debate raged over the divinity of Christ. Arius of Alexandria stood and explained that Jesus was not divine, but just a really good prophet. Nicholas ended up going to prison again, this time for striking Arius for his heresy.

There was, of course, a very famous legend around the saint from which we get the modern Saint Nicholas ("Santa Claus") story. A poor father of three girls had no money for their dowries. No dowry -- no marriage. He couldn't support them anymore, so he was going to sell them. The night before the eldest daughter was to be sold, she washed her stockings and hung them by the fire to dry. In the morning, a lump of gold was in her stocking -- enough for a dowry. Now, the legend gets a little vague here. Some versions say he returned on two subsequent years when each daughter came of age to repeat the gift and others say he did it on two subsequent nights, but all three were saved by this generosity. On the night of the third, the father stayed awake and caught Saint Nicholas throwing the gold into the stocking. Enter the legend of Santa Claus.

Other stories abound. He provided food to a starving city with two sacks of grain that didn't run out. He supplied baskets of goodies to families in need. He befriended a pine martin (a mean relative of the badger) who delivered his gifts to children.

No, no North Pole, no Mrs. Claus, no elves. Just an all-around nice guy giving gifts to people in need and standing for Christ.

You know, if that was the Santa they wanted me to play, I might just find it in my heart to do so. Let's see. Give gifts to people who need them. Smack people who defy Christ. Yeah, I think I could get used to that. But I would guess that if I emulated that Santa Claus, no one would ask me to do it again next year. Sounds like a win-win to me.