Saint Nicholas: History of Santa Claus
December 4, 2007
Saint Nicholas is the historical inspiration for our modern day Santa Claus. The name Santa Claus comes from Sinterklaas, which is the Dutch word for Saint Nicholas. It was through his acts of generosity that Saint Nicholas became Santa. He was known for giving anonymously and never asking for thanks or to be repaid.
St. Nicholas was born in Patara, a village in an area that is now southern Turkey, sometime during the third century. His family was wealthy and raised him to be Christian. His parents died in an epidemic when he was still a teenager. The legend of Saint Nicholas’ generosity started there when he used all of the inheritance left to him to help those in need.
The day his death is now celebrated as St. Nicholas Day. Every December 6, people have a feast and tell stories of Nicholas and how he helped others. The origin of the Christmas tradition of hanging stockings by the fire for Santa is explained in one of those stories told about Saint Nicholas.
The story is of three women from a very poor family. In those days a family needed to provide a dowry, a gift to a potential husband, and without a large dowry it was unlikely that a woman would get married. The family of the three women was too poor to provide a dowry. If the women were not married then it was likely that they would be sold into slavery.
On three separate nights a bag of gold was thrown through the window and landed in the stockings or shoes left by the fire to dry. The three bags of gold were to be used as dowries for the women so that they could get married.
The gifts were left by Saint Nicholas. After that children left their stockings by the fire in hopes of Saint Nicholas leaving them a gift.
