Christmas Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Christmas Wiki
Santa Claus

Santa Claus (also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, or Kris Kringle) is the sovereign leader of the Municipality of Fimp and/or Canada. He flies on his sleigh with reindeers and comes down the chimney to bring presents to children when they are asleep on Christmas Eve, usually on the early hours of Christmas Day. Santa Claus will only come to children's rooms if they are fast asleep. If he spots children that are awake, He moves on to a different house until they fell asleep, then he comes back to their house to bring their presents. He gives lumps of coal to naughty children.

History Of Saint Nicholas[]

Saint-nicholas

The story of Saint Nicholas goes back to the 3rd century. Nicholas is said to have been born about March 15, 270 A.D. in Patara, around Myra in modern-day Turkey. St. Nicholas of Myra is the focus of several stories because of his righteousness and generosity. He is reported to have given away much of his inherited money and spent his time travelling the fields supporting the needy and ill. One of the most well-known St. Nicholas tales is about how he rescued three impoverished sisters from their father's plans to sell them into slavery or adultery by supplying them with a dowry so that they might marry. Nicholas' fame grew with time, and he became recognized as the guardian of children and sailors. On December 6th, the anniversary of his burial (when he died on December 6th, 343 A.D.), his feast day is observed. This was once thought to be a lucky day for making big transactions or getting married. By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas had been Europe's most famous saint. St. Nicholas retained a good image, particularly in Holland, even after the Protestant Reformation, where saint veneration was discouraged.

Toward the end of the 18th century, St. Nicholas made his first foray into mainstream culture in the United States. A New York newspaper announced in December 1773 and again in 1774 that parties of Dutch families had assembled to commemorate his death anniversary. Nick's Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a simplified version of Sint Nikolaas, became Santa Claus (Dutch for Saint Nicholas). At the New York Historical Society's annual meeting in 1804, John Pintard, a founder, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas. The engraving's backdrop features now-familiar Santa pictures, such as stockings stuffed with toys and fruit hanging over a fireplace. As Washington Irving alluded to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York in his book The History of New York in 1809, he helped to popularize the Sinter Klaas myths. Sinter Klaas was variously portrayed as a "rascal" wearing a blue three-cornered cap, red waistcoat, and yellow stockings to a man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a "huge pair of Flemish trunk hose" as his fame rose.

Santa Claus, who first appeared in America in the 18th century, was not the only gift-giver influenced by St. Nicholas. Corresponding numbers and Christmas customs can be seen all around the globe. Christkind, also known as Kris Kringle, was said to bring gifts to well-behaved Swiss and German children. Christkind, who means "Christ boy," is an angel-like character who often joins St. Nicholas on his holiday missions. Jultomten, a jolly fairy, was said to carry presents in a sleigh pulled by goats in Scandinavia. Father Christmas is said to visit each home on Christmas Eve to fill children's stockings with holiday goodies, according to English legend. Père Nol is in charge of filling French children's shoes. A kindly witch named La Befana flies a broomstick down the chimneys of Italian homes to drop toys into the stockings of fortunate girls, according to legend.

Gift-giving[]

Santa-claus-giving-gift

Since the early nineteenth century, when the festival was resurrected, gift-giving has become an integral aspect of the Christmas celebration. In 1820, stores started advertising Christmas shopping, and by the 1840s, newspapers had created special pages for holiday ads, which often included photographs of the increasingly fashionable Santa Claus. Thousands of kids flocked to a Philadelphia store in 1841 to see a life-size Santa Claus illustration. It was just a matter of time before shops started luring kids and their parents in with the promise of seeing a “live” Santa Claus. The Salvation Army requested funds in the early 1890s to provide for the free Christmas dinners they gave to poor people. They started dressing unemployed men up as Santa Claus and bringing them out onto the streets of New York to solicit donations. Since then, Salvation Army Santas have been ringing bells on street corners throughout the United States.

Chimney tradition[]

Santa-claus-going-down-chimney

Many European seasonal gift-givers follow the custom of Santa Claus supposedly entering homes via the chimney. On the solstice, Odin was said to reach by chimneys and fire holes in pre-Christian Norse mythology. The gift-giving witch is perpetually shrouded with soot from her journeys down the chimneys of children's homes in the Italian Befana culture. Saint Nicholas is said to have thrown coins through a window and, in a later version of the tale, down a chimney while the window was closed. Adults and toddlers gaze up a chimney with wonder in their eyes in Dutch artist Jan Steen's drawing The Feast of Saint Nicholas, as other children play with their toys. In primitive tradition, the hearth was held holy as a pillar of beneficence, and elves and fairies were said to carry presents to the house through this doorway. The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," in which the author portrayed him as an elf, rendered Santa's entry into homes through the chimney on Christmas Eve a part of American tradition.

Christmas Eve Tradition[]

Santa-putting-presents-christmas-tree

In the United States and Canada, children leave a glass of milk and a tray of sweets for Santa to enjoy; in the United Kingdom and Australia, children leave sherry or cider, as well as mince pies. Rice porridge with sugar and cinnamon is commonly left for him by children in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Guinness or milk, as well as Christmas pudding or mince pies, are common in Ireland. St. Nicolaus (Mikulás) arrives in Hungary on the evening of December 5th, and the children receive their presents the following morning. If they were successful, they received candy in a bag, and if they were not, they received a golden coloured birch turn. On Christmas Eve, "Little Jesus" appears and bestows presents to everybody. On the eve of December 6, Saint Nicholas (Miklav) gives little presents to healthy children in Slovenia. On the eve of Christmas Eve, Boiek (Christmas Man) brings presents, and Dedek Mraz (Grandfather Frost) brings gifts on the evening of December 31, to be opened on New Year's Day.

Children in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Canada, and the United States often leave a carrot for Santa's reindeer, and are warned that if they are not successful all year, they will earn a lump of coal in their stockings, but this tradition is now deemed obsolete. Children will "put out their shoe" for Sinterklaas, as is the Dutch tradition (leave hay and a carrot for his horse in a shoe before going to bed, sometimes weeks before the Sinterklaas avond). The hay and carrot will be supplemented with a present the next morning, which is usually a marzipan figpee. Naughty children were once advised that instead of candy, they would be given a roe (a package of sticks), although this tradition has since been stopped.

Other Christmas Eve Santa Claus traditions in the United States include reading A Visit from St. Nicholas or another Santa Claus tale, watching a Santa or Christmas-related animated programme on television (such as the aforementioned Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and similar specials, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, among many others), and singing Santa Claus songs like "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." Until heading to bed, children perform last-minute tasks such as aligning stockings on the mantelpiece or anywhere where Santa can see them, peering up the chimney (in homes with a fireplace), glancing out a window and searching the sky for Santa's sleigh, and (in homes without a fireplace) opening an outside door so Santa will reach the house safely.

Parents pretend to be Santa Claus and leave their presents under the Christmas tree until the children have fallen asleep. Before the presents are placed under the tree, the tags on the gifts for children are often signed "From Santa Claus" by their guardians.

Where does Santa Claus live?[]

throwing Santa, & his wife Mrs. Claus, are known to have a that house and workshop where he going to said is to making the presents he is said to giving to great grandchildren at Christmas, often with the helper of elves or other magical creatures. According to certain myths and folklore, his house and store are surrounded by a community populated by his servants. Santa is said to reside at the North Pole in North American culture (in the United States and Canada), which, according to Canada Post, is located under Canadian authority in postal code H0H 0H0 (a nod to Santa's famous saying, "ho ho ho," while postal codes beginning with H are normally reserved for the island of Montréal in Québec). Santa Claus was granted Canadian citizenship on December 23, 2008, by Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism. In an official release, Kenney said, "The Government of Canada wishes Santa the best in his Christmas Eve duties and wants to let him realize that, as a Canadian citizen, he has the automatic right to re-enter Canada once his journey around the world is complete."

In Alaska, there is also a city called North Pole, which has a tourist attraction known as the "Santa Claus House." The city's ZIP code of 99705 is used by the US Postal Service as the branded postal code for Santa Claus. A "sleigh fly across" has also been recorded by a Wendy's in North Pole, Alaska. Each Nordic nation believes that Santa's home is within their borders. He claims to remain in Drbak, Norway. He is reported to remain in Greenland in Denmark (near Uummannaq). Tomteland is an amusement park in the Swedish town of Mora. Children's letters for Santa are received at the national postal terminal in Tomteboda, Stockholm. Santa Claus Village and Santa Park are both situated near Rovaniemi, and Korvatunturi has long been established as Santa's home in Finland. Ded Moroz has a house in Belarus' Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park.

In Popular Culture[]

In Media[]

  • In the 2015 Marvel Christmas Special called "Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Frost Fight", Santa was known by the 9 Realms as Jolnir Sinterklaas.

Holiday Relations[]

The Christmas That Santa Claus / Saint Nicholas Likes The Christmas That Santa Claus / Saint Nicholas Despites
Good Holidays
Christmas Characters
  • Mrs. Claus: Santa's wife
  • La Befana
  • Christmas Creatures
    • The Christmas Spider
    • Nisser/Nisse
    • Yule Goat (the good ones)
    • Reindeer
    • Elves
    • The Lutins
    • Tomten
  • Good Companions of St. Nick
    • Zwarte Pete / Black Pete
    • Belsnickel
    • Knecht Ruprecht
    • Pere Fouettard (French for Father Whipper who hands out coal lumps, a beating, or a whipping to naughty kids. When Santa gifts well-behaved kids wit candies & small gifts, Pere Fouettard gives bad kids a BEATING!!)
    • Pelzebock
    • Schmutzli
  • Olentzero: one of the Jentillak, a race of Basque giants living in the Pyreness.
  • Jack Frost: the embodiment of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter & freezing cold.
  • Ded Moroz / Grandfather Frost
  • The Snow Maiden: Ded Moroz's grand-daughter
  • Frosty the Snowman
  • Crystal: Frosty's wife
  • 3 Christmas Ghosts
  • The Whos
  • Caga Tio
  • Silvesterklaus
Bad Holidays
  • Kwanza (December 26)
  • Krampusnacht (December 5)
  • Saint Knut's Day
Anti-Christmas Characters
  • 7 Darkest Christmas Traditions Around Planet Earth
    • Grye Carling - a Scottish Witch (she specifically punishes women who haven't finished spinning their flax by January 6th by beating them with an iron club)
    • The Kallikantzaroi (goblin-like creatures that originated from the southeast European & Anatolian folklore. They are VERY evil & are known as Christmas Goblins)
    • Hans Trapp - The Christmas Cannibal (renowned for his greed & corruption / dishonesty. He uses witchcraft / dark magic & deals with Satan / Lucifer, the devil king to become rich. After becoming excommunicated from the Catholic church, he lost both his wealth & social standing & began the idea of eating human flesh & wearing scarecrow cloths)
    • Gryla & the Yule cat (Gryla is a giantess with a hunger for human flesh of bad / evil kids whom she cooks in a large pot. The Yule cat is a huge & vicious cat that lurks around the countryside during Christmas time & eats people who haven't received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve)
    • Mari Lywd - a skeletal horse demon (A Welsh custom founded in South Wales. The tradition entails the use of a big hobby horse which was made from a horse's skull mounted on a pole & carried by an individual hidden under a sackcloth. It was a tradition performed at Christmas time by groups of men who would accompany the horse on its travels around the local area)
    • Frau Perchta (a witch who comes to see who was naughty or nice. She cuts open the bellies of naughty kids & stuff their corpses with straw & pebbles for being lazy, greedy & selfish. She even has a particular penchant for kids who don't tell the truth. But she does have a sense of justice & will hand out presents to those who are most-deserving for being good, kind, hard-working & generous)
    • Krampus
  • Straggele: Frau Perchta's demonic helpers who dish out the punishments themselves, robbing ALL bad children & tearing some of them to pieces. They leave small gifts in shoes that kids place on window sills, but if a child has been disobedient, they leave a rotten potato in it instead.
  • Yule Lads: 13 mischievous pranksters who steal or harass the population
  • Grinch
  • Lussi (a female being with evil traits who rides through the air with her followers called Lussiferda. Kids who have been bad had to take special care, since Lussi could come down take take them away & punish the household)
  • The Haunting of the Dybbuk Boxes (in the mystical traditions of Judaism, a Dybbuk is a restless & usually evil spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person. It has the power to possess the living, leading them to a life of torment & dread)
  • The Bell Witch (In the early 19th century A.D. in the heart of Tennessee, there lived the Bell family; an ordinary family whose lives were about to take from the Mundane into the realm of the supernatural. A successful farmer named John Bell, a respect figure in the community, who enjoyed a peaceful existence with his family. That was until 1 day, when he encountered a strange creature in his cornfield; a creature that bore an eerie resemblance to a dog. yet, it was unlike any beast he'd ever see. this encounter marked the beginning of a series of supernatural events that would change the family's life forever. they started experiencing strange phenomena. The entity soon began to speak & its voice ranged from a faint whisper to a thundering roar. The entity is also capable of physical attacks. The entity was believed to be the spirit of their dead neighbor; a woman named Kate Batts who had a dispute with John Bell years before. She has a hatred for John Bells & became known has the Bell Witch)
  • Dark Elves
  • Yule Goats (the bad ones)
  • Grither
  • Bad Companions of St. Nick
    • Klaubauf
    • Bartel
    • Schmutzli
  • Joulupukki (Goatman)
  • Green Man, also known as a foliate head
  • Namahage
  • Nuuttipukki
  • Turoń
  • Kurentovanje

Powers & Abilities[]

Powers[]

Abilities[]

Paraphernalia[]

Equipment[]

  • Toy Bag: Santa's toy bag is said to be able to carry enough toys for all the good little girls and boys.

Transportation[]

  • Santa's Sleigh: a decorated sleigh drawn by 8-9 reindeer. The sleigh and reindeer are able to defy gravity and traverse continents, allowing Santa Claus to distribute the toys to the young children.
  • Rocket Sleigh; sometimes

Weapons[]

  • Coal Lumps: The precise nature of these lumps of coal is uncertain, but it generally has a emotional effect (damaging confidence, pride and motivation) on those that receive it.
  • Shivs: During Lobo's misadventure with "Crusher" Kringle, he wielded two sharpened shivs against the Czarnian bounty hunter.

Allegations of intimate relation with Justin Trudeau[]

Coming soon!

External links[]

  • v · t · e
Christmas
Advertisement