Meet the Real Santa Claus

Known to the World as Sinterklaas

Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from Church history and folklore, notably St Nicholas (known in Dutch as Sinterklaas), merged with the English character Father Christmas to create the character known to Americans and the rest of the English-speaking world as Santa Claus (a phonetic derivation of Sinterklaas).

Note: Sinterklaas is pronounced as Sinter • Kloss (rhymes with "gloss"). If you repeat "Sinterklaas" enough times, you will hear its closely similar pronunciation to Santa Claus.

St. Nicholas was a Christian bishop who provided for the poor and sick, and is the basis for the popular character of Santa Claus. St. Nicholas was a compassionate soul who often helped the needy. After his death, the legend of his prolific gift-giving grew, and St. Nicholas transformed into the legendary character called Santa Claus, who brings Christmas presents to children all around the world. Don't worry kids! The descendants of St. Nicolas have continued to send "Santa Claus" on his mission every Christmas Eve to deliver toys under the Christmas tree and lots of cheer.

St. Nicholas was born sometime around circa 280 A.D. He lost both of his parents as a young man and reportedly used his huge inheritance to help the poor and sick, especially children. A Twenty-First Century representation of St. Nicholas of what he looked like in the Fourth-Century A.D. is shown in the right sidebar panel of this web page.

There are many legends about St. Nicholas of Myra. One story tells how he helped three poor sisters. Their father did not have enough money to pay their dowries and thought of selling them into servitude. Three times, St. Nicholas secretly went to their house at night and put a bag of money inside. The man used the money so that his daughters could marry. On the third visit, the man saw St. Nicholas and thanked him for his kindness. Being a devout Christian, and a follower of Christ's admonition against publicly giving for the appearance of self-gain, St. Nicholas asked the man not to divulge who he was.

Several sources state St. Nicholas is believed to have died on December 6, 343 A.D. Over the years, stories of his generous works for the poor spread to other parts of the world and he became known as the protector of children and was associated with leaving gifts in their homes. He was a popular saint in Europe until the time of the Reformation in the 1500s, a religious movement that led to the creation of Protestantism, which turned away from the practice of honoring humans as saints. St. Nicholas, however, remained an important figure in Holland, where he became known as the beloved Sinterklaas.

The Dutch continued to celebrate the feast day of St. Nicholas every December 6. It was a common practice for children to put out their shoes the night before. In the morning, they would discover the gifts that St. Nicholas had left there for them. Dutch immigrants brought St. Nicholas, known to them as Sint Nikolaas or by his nickname Sinterklaas, and his gift-giving ways to America in the 1700s.

In America, St. Nicholas went through many transformations and eventually Sinterklaas became Santa Claus. Instead of giving gifts on December 6, he became a part of the Christmas holiday. In the 1820 poem An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore, he is described as a jolly ol' fat man with snow white hair who comes down the chimney to leave presents for deserving children and drives a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. The cartoonist Thomas Nast added to the St. Nicholas legend with an 1881 drawing of Santa Claus as wearing a red suit with white fur trim. Once a kind and charitable bishop, St. Nicholas had become the Santa Claus we all know and love today.

So, Sinterklaas really existed as a gift-giving philanthropist who thrilled the lives of young children. Whoever says that Santa Claus is nothing more than an imaginative myth would do well to read about St. Nicholas of the Third and Fourth Centuries A.D.