Do you or don’t you?
Presumably, your answer reflects whether you still have a naïve, sentimental attachment to a childish belief or whether you are a mature, educated adult.
What are we talking about?
First, there’s no dispute that historically there was a Nicholas who was bishop of Myra in Asia Minor in the days of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Secondly, he was known for his holiness and generosity, so much so that many stories were told about his good deeds and miracles. He was known as Nicholas the Wonderworker and popular all over Eastern and Western Europe.
Curiously, many of our popular modern notions about St. Nicholas (abbreviated as Saint or Santa Claus) are associated with the history of the Dutch colony, later taken over by the English, that became New York.
Early books there about Santa Claus had him arriving from the North in a sleigh drawn by flying reindeer to reward good children and punish the bad.
But, the definitive popular description of Santa Claus came with the publication of a long poem, known now as “The Night Before Christmas.” That helped paint our contemporary image of “A right jolly old elf . . . dressed all in fur . . . a bundle of toys . . . flung on his back.”
The elf with the toys for the good children has become endeared by stores selling Christmas gifts—and many a make-believe Santa Claus is ensconced in a department store or mall as a promotion for purchases.
As happens with so many customs with religious roots, we tend to elaborate and exaggerate the details to the point that we almost forget the origin of the custom.
Bishop Nicholas was famous for helping the poor and needy, but the imaginative legends about him have focused on him as bringing gifts for good children.
How did all the customs associated with St. Nicholas get entangled with Christmas, the nativity of Jesus?
What may have contributed to the situation was the adoption of the newer Gregorian calendar by the Western Church, while the Eastern Churches generally continued to follow the older, Julian calendar.
St. Nicholas’s feast day was traditionally December 6th. Since most of churches of the homeland of St. Nicholas did not adopt the updated, Gregorian calendar, it would seem to the Western churches that did that the day was on the 19th of December.
Perhaps it was close enough to the Western date of the celebration of the Nativity to seem that the Orthodox churches were merely starting a little early to celebrate Christmas, while actually they were celebrating St. Nicholas day.
In any case, clearly the two feasts have been somewhat entangled in popular observance with most of the St. Nicholas day traditions being associated with Christmas!
Anyway, there’s no jolly old elf or St. Nicholas living near the North Pole, nor does he have an army of assistants, nor does he use a flying reindeer-drawn sled, nor does he come down chimneys.
However, we do celebrate the generosity and love of St. Nicholas, inspired by the love of the child that was born in Bethlehem so long ago.
Above all, we celebrate the almost incredible love, mercy, and sacrifice of the grown man that child later became that has saved us all and inspires and guides us still!
We believe in him, every day, Christmas and always!
25 December 2022