We all know and love the man who visits our homes every Christmas Eve to deliver gifts to children who have been good. Today, he is usually portrayed as a man who lives with his wife at the North Pole, surrounded by reindeer and elves who diligently work throughout the year creating gifts for children. But do you know the history of Santa Claus? This article will provide a brief overview.

Santa Claus has gone by many different names throughout history. You might recognize some of them: Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, or Sinterklaas. 

The original iteration of Santa Claus dates back to the 4th-century. St. Nicholas of Myra of a Geek Christian bishop who was well known for his generous charity to poor people. Particularly, he was famous for giving gifts to poor women to make them marriageable so that they wouldn’t be forced to live lives of prostitution. When he was awarded sainthood, Christians celebrated his feast day on December 6th. 

St. Nicholas became a very popular figure in countries like Germany. According to legend, St. Nicholas had filled the stockings of girls with gold coins late in the night. This began the tradition of children hanging their stockings by the fireplace in the hope that St. Nicholas would visit them and bring them gold coins. 

In the Netherlands, a version of Saint Nicholas was called Sinterklaas. Sinterlaas wore a long white beard, could fly through the air on his white horse, and carried a cloth sack which he used to capture naughty children. 

The modern origins of Santa Claus can be traced back to England in the 1800’s. Britains had long celebrated a mythical man they called Father Christmas. Father Christmas was a man of perpetual good cheer who wore a long furry green coat. This character was combined with the gift-giving Saint Nicholas to create the earliest variant of Santa Claus.

It was in the United States where all these elements were brought together. In 1823, Clement Clarke Moore published his poem “The Night Before Christmas”. This poem, which is still extremely popular today, described Santa Claus for the first time as we would now recognize him. 

In the 1930’s artist Haddon Sundblom began drawing images of Santa Claus as advertisements for the Coca-Cola Company. He based these works on the descriptions in Moore’s poem. Even today, Santa Claus is an image we intimately associate with the Coca-Cola Company. 

Santa Claus has taken a long journey to get to where he is today. He is certainly one of the most fascinating and well-liked characters in our culture. It will be interesting to see if there are any further changes in store for him.