Modern Santa Claus Is a Combination of European and Christian Traditions
Prior to the rise of Christianity in continental Europe, the Germanic peoples worshiped a pantheon of gods, including Odin.
European Culture and Christian Reformulation
Missionaries and church leaders would allow converted tribespeople to keep their language, clothing, and some holdovers from their old traditions. Missionaries would insist that any holdover traditions be used to glorify God, so if the converted people had a winter or fall harvest festival, for example, a celebration would still be held at the same time of year, but it would thereafter be a festival of a martyred saint or a time of worship. But some of the traditions connected to the old festivals carried forward into the new ones. Some scholars hold that some of the traditions related to modern Santa Claus can actually be rooted back to pre-Christian celebrations of the Nordic season “Yule” where Odin would ride his eight-legged horse across the sky and give gifts to children.
When Saint Nicholas (270-343 A.D.), who inherited wealth and was generous toward children and the poor, died December 6, around the time of the old Yule festival, Odin was discarded and Yule transformed into a time of remembering Nicholas’s generosity and kindness to children as the festival of Christmastide approached.
Nicholas Became a Figure Who “Ushered in” Christmas
Different European cultures call him “Lord Christmas,” “Sir Christmas,” “Father Christmas,” or “Sinterklaas” (a combination and shortening of ‘Sint’ and “Nicolaas’) from which we get the English “Santa Claus.” “Santa” means “saint” and “Claus” is a shortened form of the name “Nicholas.” Sinterklaas is often depicted dressed in the red vestments of a Christian bishop while riding a large, white horse like Odin.
The Sinterklaas Tradition Came to the U.S. with European Immigrants
In the U.S., the tradition was anglicized (Sinterklaas became “Santa Claus”) and new traditions developed including Santa’s hat, sleigh and reindeer, living at the North Pole, etc.
Article for this topic by Daniel Martin.
