Celebrating Saint Nicholas in a Santa Claus World

Shannon Whitmore considers the tradition of celebrating Saint Nicholas Day in a world that loves Santa Claus.

One of the priests in our parish goes all out every year on Saint Nicholas Day. He encourages every family to have a Saint Nicholas with the Infant Jesus statue in their homes. He strongly asserts the fact that Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus are in fact the same person. But you can’t deny that while most people have Santa Claus decorations all over their homes, many of those people don’t know that Santa Claus is a real, historical figure. But he is.

Santa Claus (Santa=Saint, Claus=Nicholas) was a real Christian bishop who lived during the early centuries of the Church. Many things that people traditionally associate with Santa Claus do in fact have their origin in the person of Saint Nicholas. His red, fur-lined cloak is reminiscent of early bishop’s garb. The tradition of leaving out stockings for presents comes from a story about Saint Nicholas providing the dowries of three poor young women by leaving gold coins in their stockings. Over the centuries, Saint Nicholas has evolved (or devolved, depending on how you look at it) into the fat, jolly old man in red that we all know so well.

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My kids love Saint Nicholas. We hang our stockings up Thanksgiving weekend, knowing that in just a few short weeks, we’ll get what my kids fondly call “Santa’s sneak peak.” When they wake up on Saint Nicholas Day morning, they can expect chocolate coins, a saint peg doll, and a few other goodies. They like to tell us that Santa does a preliminary run-through on Saint Nicholas Day to make sure that he’s fully prepared for Christmas Eve. The kids love it, and I love that they love Saint Nicholas so much.

Our kids use "Saint Nicholas" and "Santa Claus" interchangeably. In their sweet little heads, they have assembled a story about his life that makes sense to them. Saint Nicholas spends his time traveling between heaven and the North Pole, where the elves work tirelessly making toys for good boys and girls. He can see them when they’re sleeping and he knows when they’re awake because Santa is a saint in heaven. In adult words, Saint Nicholas knows all those things because he is participating in the beatific vision, just like the rest of the saints. But only Saint Nicholas brings presents.

Recently, we were watching the original Rudolph movie. Throughout the movie, Santa Claus refers to Mrs. Claus as “Mama,” and now my kids assume that Mrs. Claus is not his wife, but his mother. And frankly, that jives better with the truth anyway. As a bishop, Saint Nicholas would not have had a wife. But he certainly had a mother. And perhaps, like our Mother Mary, Saint Nicholas’ mother is very much involved in the goings-on of her son. And so the story continues to evolve.

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Many things that people traditionally associate with Santa Claus do in fact have their origin in the person of Saint Nicholas. #CatholicMom

Christmas is a few weeks away, but there’s still time to celebrate Saint Nicholas Day, which is December 6th. If you haven’t already done it, consider hanging up your stockings a few weeks early. Everyone loves a chance to celebrate yet another one of our Church’s amazing saints!