SANTA CLAUS: FROM A BISHOP IN TURKEY TO THE GLOBAL ICON OF CHRISTMAS
How a 4th-century saint inspired the legend of the white-bearded elder who fills the world’s chimneys with magic every December
Every December, millions of children eagerly await the arrival of a jolly old man, dressed in red, who rides across the sky in a reindeer-drawn sleigh. His name changes depending on the country: Santa Claus, Père Noël, Viejito Pascuero, Sinterklaas… yet the image is unmistakable. Behind this beloved figure, however, lies a story that blends reality, legend, and a clever commercial twist that ultimately shaped Christmas as we know it.
The earliest root of this myth lies in a Greek-born bishop named Nicholas, born around 280 in Patara, a coastal city in Roman Lycia, present-day Turkey. The son of a wealthy family, Nicholas was orphaned at a young age and chose to use his inheritance to help those in need. His life was marked by acts of generosity that quickly became legendary: saving three girls from falling into prostitution by tossing bags of gold down their chimney is perhaps the most emblematic story that inspired the figure of Santa Claus. Another lesser-known but equally striking tale recounts how Nicholas rescued three children who had been murdered and stored in barrels of brine, proving that his reputation as a protector of the vulnerable was no myth.
After his death in 343 AD, Nicholas’ tomb in Myra became a place of pilgrimage, and his relics were considered miraculous. In 1087, Italian sailors transported most of his remains to Bari, in southern Italy, where he was venerated as Saint Nicholas of Bari. His reputation as a benefactor spread rapidly across Europe, and although the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century diminished his devotion in many countries, the tradition endured, particularly in the Netherlands, under the name Sinterklaas.
Sinterklaas, with his bishop’s mitre and white beard, arrived in the New World with Dutch settlers who founded New Amsterdam modern-day New York in the 17th century. There, Nicholas’ figure began to transform: Americans adapted his name to “Santa Claus” and started merging it with Nordic folk tales and European mythological figures. Some elements, for instance, came from Odin, the Norse god who rode through the sky during the winter solstice, rewarding the virtuous and punishing the wicked, as well as from pagan figures representing a benevolent old man during winter festivities.
The 19th century solidified the modern version of Santa Claus. Poems such as A Visit from St. Nicholas (1823) by Clement Clarke Moore, also known as The Night Before Christmas, described a Santa who traveled in a reindeer-drawn sleigh and entered homes through chimneys to leave gifts. Slowly, magazines like Harper’s Weekly popularized his caricatured image, while the illustrator Thomas Nast, in 1863, depicted him as a plump, white-bearded man working in his North Pole workshop. Although popular culture often credits Coca-Cola with inventing his iconic red suit, the truth is that the company merely capitalized on an image that had already taken hold in the United States since the mid-19th century.
Yet the story of Santa Claus is not just a children’s tale. Originally, his creation had a social purpose: to domesticate Christmas and focus it on the family. In the early 19th century, Christmas in the United States was chaotic: Protestant leaders had banned religious celebrations, leading to disorderly festivities, with drunken revelers roaming the streets during winter. The Saint Nicholas Society of New York devised a brilliant plan: shift the focus to children and their gifts, transforming the holiday into a controlled, family-centered event. Washington Irving contributed to this narrative with sketches of Saint Nicholas flying over New York, while later poems and stories standardized his image and reinforced his benevolent character.
Today, Santa Claus is the universal symbol of Christmas, uniting historical, religious, folkloric, and commercial elements in a single character. He is the product of nearly two thousand years of cultural evolution: a generous bishop who walked the streets of Lycia, a Viking god crossing the winter skies, a Dutch sailor reimagined by American writers and illustrators, and finally, a smiling old man in red who sparks wonder worldwide.
Beyond his white beard and sleigh, the true essence of Santa Claus remains that of Nicholas of Bari: kindness, generosity, and protection of the vulnerable. Every gift left in a stocking hanging by the fireplace echoes that 4th-century gesture, when a man climbed onto a roof in Roman Lycia to change the lives of three girls. And though his image has been commercialized, his spirit endures, reminding us that Christmas, at its heart, has always been an act of shared love and magic.