Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Six - Santa Claus

In the fourth Century, a bishop by the name of Nicholas of Myra living in Turkey earned a reputation for giving gifts to children out of love and generosity. It is greatly due to this man, Saint Nicholas, that the tradition of giving gifts at Christmas continued on after Europe was Christianized. Many Europeans still celebrate his legacy on Saint Nicholas Day, December 6th, by giving gifts to one another.

In many places, it became custom to give gifts on Saint Nicholas' Eve. One such place was the Netherlands. There, they called him Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas was dressed like a bishop, with a cape and hat. He has a long white beard and often carried a book that told whether children were good or bad that year.

The Dutch brought Sinterklaas to America, where he became Santa Claus. In the late 1800s, a cartoonist named Thomas Nast depicted him as being a plump, jolly man dressed in fur and smoking a pipe. This soon became the standard picture of Santa Claus for America, and the template was used everywhere.

The American version of Santa Claus eventually came to Britain, where he was mixed with traditional Anglo-Saxan ideas of the man. In England, he is called Father Christmas, and is not simply the gift giver, but the personification of Christmas itself.

In Germany, another gift bringer, the Christkindl, was created in response to the secular celebration of Saint Nicholas/Father Christmas. Christkindl was German for "Christ child". It was described a sprite-like infant with wings, supposedly the incarnation of the infant Jesus, that brought gifts to children. Over time, it simply became another version of Santa Claus, and Americans mispronounced it as Kris Kringle.

Over time, several more details fell into place: the North Pole, the elves, the reindeer and sleigh, the milk and cookies, etc. Today, children everywhere wait for Santa Claus to come at midnight on Christmas eve to bring them presents and Coca-Cola uses his image to sell their product.