Santa in 4 Minutes!
Lest we forget Jolly Old St. Nick during our holiday festivities, a quick tour of the history and development of one of the “fringe characters” of the Christmas story should put things to rights.
Santa is, of course, not at the fringe but rather the very center of many of our current and cultural Christmas traditions, but he makes, of course, no appearance in the “original” Christmas story. What we know of him now, as you’ll discover in the video, is an amalgam of various winter solstice traditions and characters. The one that connects to the Christmas story most closely is that of Saint Nicholas, whose “saint day” I completely missed this year on December 6.
The rest of the story of St. Nick, Santa, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, or the many other names by which he is known – is just fascinating. I knew some of it, but learned a lot, too. And all in just under four minutes!
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Just a couple of things…..
St Nicholas day is 6th December
Scotland speaks of Santa Claus
England has Father Christmas!
Thanks, Anne. I’d like to think that I knew that and it was a typo, but things have been so fast and furious here of late, who knows? 🙂
Thanks for the catch!
St. Nicholas’ Feast Day is Dec. 6th. I have an 11yr old son named Nicholas, he wasn’t shy about telling EVERYONE he came into contact with that it was his “feast day”