The FBI’s 10 most wanted list has swollen to 14, crime in the streets is steadily increasing, and if none of this succeeds in destroying man, pollution will. But cheer up, life isn’t all bad! Dec. 25 is coming, and soon jolly old Santa Claus will appear in the chimneys (and at the front doors) of thousands of homes. But did you ever wonder just how St. Nick came to be?
The first half of the legend started at about the time the Christ child was born, when a new god named Odin wandered into German mythology. At first a cruel god, Odin gradually became the protector of all his people. When rumors of Christianity drifted into Germany, the people set up their own religion with Odin acting as the chief god—and as Santa Claus.
St. Nicholas constitutes the second half of the Santa Claus legend. When his parents died, he inherited a great fortune. He wanted to give it to those in need, but because the Scriptures say “When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret” he felt that he could not let people know that it was he that was giving the gifts. Thus, the secrecy of Santa Claus entering a house by night when people are “nestled all snug in their beds” came to be.
Besides being fond of little children, St. Nicholas is the guardian of unmarried girls. This fact also comes from legend. One day, the Saint was passing the house of a widower with three daughters. The widower was a nobleman, but had no money with which to provide his daughter’s dowries. When St. Nicholas heard their crying, he decided to give his last three sacks of gold to them. Each night he would drop a sack into the window of the girl who was to be married. This worked fine until the time came to give the third daughter her gold. It was then that the suspicious father caught him, but St. Nicholas made the father promise to tell no one.
The American Santa Claus was officially created in 1823, when Clement C. Moore wrote “The Night Before Christmas.” In Europe, Saint Nicholas is a tall, thin, and stately person. But, thanks to Moore’s poem, our American Santa Claus is fat and jolly with “a nose like a cherry” and a belly that shakes “like a bowl full of jelly.”
And so it was that from the merging of several cultures and legends, we came to know this whimsical and kind old spirit that is so needed by today’s hectic world. —by Cylla Rodgers