The Kneeling Santa

Years ago my grade school son's teacher (at a Christian school) sent a note home asking me to stop my son from telling the other kids that there was no such thing as Santa Claus. Of course, back then I was amused. Did she really think there was a Santa and he was telling them fibs? Was a Christian teacher in a Christian school opposed to the truth of Christmas? I have grown up since then. Turns out, she was wrong ... but right. Santa is real. The whole elf-who-lives-at-the-North-Pole thing, of course, is nonsense. That version is an act of sedition that changed the true version into a lie. What is the truth about Santa Claus?

Bishop Nicholas of Myra was born in 270 A.D. in what is now Turkey. He was a devout Christian and loved Jesus. At one point he was imprisoned by Diocletian, a Roman emperor, for his faith. He was legendary for his generosity and gave away most of what he had to those in need. His special interest was needy children. One story is told about Nicholas saving three young girls from misery by secretly putting dowry money in stockings they had hung over the fireplace to dry. In 325 he attended the Council of Nicaea where they discussed whether Jesus was God or not (the Arian heresy). Nicholas is reputed to have slapped Arius for his heresy. The Roman Catholic church sainted him and he was known as the patron saint of charity and children. So Saint Nicholas became Sinterklaas in Holland (the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas) and that word migrated to Santa Claus, but St. Nicholas himself never varied from a avid and sincere follower of Christ who imitated Jesus in loving those he encountered, standing always for Christ.

We are often told that Christmas traditions are largely pagan, stolen from pagan sources, and "Christian-ified" (yes, I made that word up). I think the truth is quite different. And I think that the transition of a man who adored Christ and loved his fellow man in response into a jolly old elf is the exact opposite, a theft from Christian history to pervert the truth. St. Nick lived on his knees before the newborn King. I'll stick with the real Saint Nick, thank you.