Wait, Santa Claus is Saint Nick?
When I was a growing up, my family celebrated Hanukkah. There was no Hanukkah bush, nothing green and red ever passed through our front door, we were blue and white and latkes and candles and didn’t you know Santa wasn’t real anyway? All the kids at my school knew this from at least kindergarten. Then again, I went to a Jewish school so that part was easy.
So, you can imagine my confusion when I discovered that Santa Claus was also Saint Nicholas. People called him St. Nick! Saint as in SAINT as in a very religious person! But wasn’t Santa Claus about presents and not, you know, religion?
Of course I knew from TV that Jesus Christ was born on Christmas, but I also firmly believed, until I was 24-years-old, that Christmas fell each and every year on December 26th.
This is what happens when you grow up wrapped up in the warm embrace of a very specific community. In my case, it was a lively and engaged Jewish community. I went to a Jewish school during the week, services on Saturday, my parents were friends with Jews, so of course I grew up to be completely obsessed with saints. Really. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the biographies of Ethiopian Christian Saints and went off to graduate school to study the early Christian variety.
So the real story of Saint Nicholas, a Greek saint who was known for giving gifts and became Saint Nicholas patron saint of Russia, is one the grown up in me would like to explore. The kid in me, though, she would just have been confused. Sure “Santa” sounded like “Saint” but “Claus” did not sound like “Nick.” No. I thought, for a good long time, that maybe there were two different gift givers, even though my dad kept telling me Saint Nick and Santa Claus were the same person. I didn’t believe him. I mean, how would know anyway? He’s Jewish?!?
Frankly, to the 9-year-old in me the news that Santa was also Saint Nicholas was all just more information that was no doubt meant to make Christmas seem even more fabulous and distant than it already was. All I really knew was that over in some other houses, Saint Nicolas or Santa Claus or both came to town and everyone had a jolly time. On December 26th.
How about you? Was the news that Santa was a Saint really news or something you just always knew?
photo credit:Wiki commons
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Wow . . that was really . . confusing? Needlessly so?
It’s pretty simple, the Saint we celebrate (today) is Saint Nicholas. Christmas itself is about the birth of Jesus Christ. See? Easy-peasy.
Anything else is Saturnalia, which, frankly, is just fine with me if people celebrate that long-standing holiday! It’s kind of something separate from the Christian holidays of this time, even if ancient Christians DID appropriate the timing from it.
One of the most important Christian holy days (holidays) is on Wednesday – the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We have a very busy December on the Christian calendar!
Easy!
I always thought Christmas was on the 24th since we started celebrating at sundown on Christmas Eve with a huge dinner. Jewish-style, I guess. Or, Pagan-style, since counting your days from sundown to sundown was the Pagan way, too. It’s not surprising that Christmas is confusing to folks who don’t celebrate it, it’s confusing when you do. It doesn’t help that there are traditions borrowed from a dozen different northern European cultures, most of which predate the Christian Era. Add to that the sea-change that Christmas underwent at the dawn of the Industrial Era, and stuff tacked on in modern times — you’ve basically got a monster with a life of its own. At least it’s a mostly lovable monster that comes bearing eggnog. Mmmmm eggnog.
Eggnog is such a happy thing.
I agree, JesBelle! Exactly what “Christmas” is isn’t necessarily as clear as BlackOrchid makes it out to be, especially in this country, because we don’t hold a separate holiday earlier in the month for kids like they do in many European and Scandinavian countries. So no, it’s NOT necessarily separate from the Christian holidays here – some people celebrate only the appropriated birthday of Jesus, some celebrate only the extra “pagan” parts, some celebrate both. Mostly, though I’m glad Robin was able to grow up pretty sheltered from the onslaught of Christmas! Many of my Jewish friends are understandably annoyed by the time Christmas finally rolls around. Heck, I celebrate (pagan) Christmas and I even get annoyed!
And the Feast of Immaculate Conception, btw, while an important Catholic holiday, is not celebrated by all Christians – most Protestant, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox Catholic churches either do not agree with the Roman Catholic doctrine of Immaculate Conception or do not agree with some other aspect that the Roman Catholic church follows.
Also, yes, eggnog. Yum. And eggnog ice cream is also delicious!