This is the third in a 3 part series. Part 1: Pagan origins of
Christmas, Part 2: Christian origins of Christmas, and Part 3:
Santa Claus and his Ilk. In part 1, I discussed the pagan
origins of Christmas. In part 2, we discussed the practices of
Christmas that were Christian in origin. In this piece, we’ll
talk about the Characters of Christmas, particularly Santa, but
with notable others as well. Santa Claus has, for better or
worse (who are we kidding, its worse), become ubiquitous with
Christmas. It is usually the first image that pops into little
heads when the C-word is mentioned. But from whence did he come?
So many names for him, too: Saint Nicolas, Father Christmas,
Kris Kringle, among others. So what is the origin of the fat
one? Let’s start at the beginning. Yes, there was in fact, a
real person named Saint Nicolas. He was born in 270 CE, and died
in 343 CE. He was the bishop of Myra, in what is now Turkey. He
was very devout, even at an early age, and after his parents
died while he was young, he