Is Santa Claus founded on Christian traditions?
460088
I believe Santa Claus is more evolved from Charity.\n\nSaint Nicholas was known for giving gifts and treats to poor children.  He did this around the Christmas holiday.  \n\nIt may have Christian origins, but he is not the meaning of Christmas.
904104
Wow..someone is really missing the whole point of christmas. Thats really sad Cynthia K if you dont know that the whole idea of santa claus was based on a man who really existed. Christmas is about the birth of jesus, and is about others being kind and warm to each other and showing how much they love each other. It was based on Saint Nicholas (dutch), who gave presents to poor children. The custom of giving gifts on a special day in winter was around before christianity came to be.  The first Dutch settlers who came to America had a figure of Saint Nicholas on the front of their ship. After christianity was well established, Saint Nicholas became a customary symbol among christians for christmas. The Dutch celebrated the feast day on December 6th and said Saint Nicholas visited their homes the night before leaving gifts. In time, English settlers adopted the legends and festivities associated with Saint Nicholas. English-speaking children spoke the Dutch name for the saint, Sinterklaas, quickly and excitedly so that it sounded like Santy Claus or Santa Claus.
9583
Well Santa Claus isn't an idea. He's real, he was born into a wealthy family in Italy, and his name was Saint Nicholas, when he was born his mother died in birth. and he lived with his father. His father died when he was a teenager, and from then he would travel Europe spreading Peace and joy, back in his home town in Italy, he heard about this man that was going to put his daughters into prostitution to pay for taxes. So on every night of Hanukah(not sure about the spelling) he take a bag of money and toss it through the window of this man house. On the first night the man was curious of who was giving him the money, so on every nighthe would wait u for the bag then try to see who through the in the window, until the night when  he saw Saint Nicholas and thanked him dearly for  the money. And when Saint Nicholas died they put his remains in a tomb in Bary(i think thats the proper name) which is in Turkey. And also thew Blood of Saint Nicholas still runs in some of us. So right now we dont Know if He lives in Greenland at the North Pole or if he's still in Italy you never Know. Like my question i just askes about 15 minutes ago ; Where did god come from, what was before god? , trust me it's tricky, but only some questions can be answered.
23035
The American version of the Santa Claus figure received its inspiration and its name from the Dutch legend of Sinter Klaas, brought by settlers to New York in the 17th century. \n\nAs early as 1773 the name appeared in the American press as "St. A Claus," but it was the popular author Washington Irving who gave Americans their first detailed information about the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. In his History of New York, published in 1809 under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, Irving described the arrival of the saint on horseback (unaccompanied by Black Peter) each Eve of Saint Nicholas.\nThis Dutch-American Saint Nick achieved his fully Americanized form in 1823 in the poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas by writer Clement Clarke Moore. Moore included such details as the names of the reindeer; Santa Claus's laughs, winks, and nods; and the method by which Saint Nicholas, referred to as an elf, returns up the chimney. (Moore's phrase "lays his finger aside of his nose" was drawn directly from Irving's 1809 description.)\nThe American image of Santa Claus was further elaborated by illustrator Thomas Nast, who depicted a rotund Santa for Christmas issues of Harper's magazine from the 1860s to the 1880s. Nast added such details as Santa's workshop at the North Pole and Santa's list of the good and bad children of the world. A human-sized version of Santa Claus, rather than the elf of Moore's poem, was depicted in a series of illustrations for Coca-Cola advertisements introduced in 1931. In modern versions of the Santa Claus legend, only his toy-shop workers are elves. Rudolph, the ninth reindeer, with a red and shiny nose, was invented in 1939 by an advertising writer for the Montgomery Ward Company.\n\nIn looking for the historical roots of Santa Claus, one must go very deep in the past. One discovers that Santa Claus as we know him is a combination of many different legends and mythical creatures.\n\nThe basis for the Christian-era Santa Claus is Bishop Nicholas of Smyrna (Izmir), in what is now Turkey. Nicholas lived in the 4th century A.D. He was very rich, generous, and loving toward children. Often he gave joy to poor children by throwing gifts in through their windows.\n\nChildren naturally wanted to know where Santa Claus actually came from. Where did he live when he wasn't delivering presents? Those questions gave rise to the legend that Santa Claus lived at the North Pole, where his Christmas-gift workshop was also located.\n\nIn 1925, since grazing reindeer would not be possible at the North Pole, newspapers revealed that Santa Claus in fact lived in Finnish Lapland. "Uncle Markus", Markus Rautio, who compared the popular "Children's hour" on Finnish public radio, revealed the great secret for the first time in 1927: Santa Claus lives on Lapland's Korvatunturi - "Ear Fell"\n\nThe fell, which is situated directly on Finland's eastern frontier, somewhat resembles a hare's ears - which are in fact Santa Claus's ears, with which he listens to hear if the world's children are being nice. Santa has the assistance of a busy group of elves, who have quite their own history in Scandinanvian legend.\n\nOver the centuries, customs from different parts of the Northern Hemisphere thus came together and created the whole world's Santa Claus - the ageless, timeless, deathless white-bearded man who gives out gifts on Christmas and always returns to Korvatunturi in Finnish Lapland.\nSince the 1950s, Santa has happily sojourned at Napapiiri, near Rovaniemi, at times other than Christmas, to meet children and the young at heart. By 1985 his visits to Napapiiri had become so regular that he established his own Santa Claus Office there. He comes there every day of the year to hear what children want for Christmas and to talk with children who have arrived from around the world.
7510
This is a very good question. As we all know that the true meaning of Christmas is gone and now turned into a commercial holiday. As for Santa Claus, telling a child about his or her presents came from the guy in the red suit, its just a tradition that's been passed on for many generations. In a way it is lying but as the child grows older and realized that there is really no Santa Claus then it gives the child the sense of what is real and what is not. As for the lying parents, I'm sure that when they were a kid, they've been lied to by their own parents so  like I said it is then passed on, and will continue for many many years.
333044
No tradition that we generally practice today is forbidden for today.  The passage in Jeremiah that seems to describe a "Christmas tree" was referring to making an idol out of the tree, it was forbidding the vain worship that the pagans participated in.  However, there was a tradition fairly recently (past 200 years or so) that certainly wasn't very Christ like...\n\nIf you are familiar with all the verses of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" you know that there are some pretty interesting lyrics to the song...  "Now bring us some figgy pudding..." "...We won't go until we get some..."  Going house to house demanding that people fix you some treat was actually a Christmas tradition in England (and probably colonial America)!
882753
Of course it is, but so is Christmas. December 25 has always been a pagan holiday. Early Christians did not celebrate birthdays only pagans did and John the Baptist lost his head during  Herod's birthday celebration. Santa Claus, gift giving and all the yule tide traditions are very pagan in origin. \n\nChristianity today is very much engulfed in pagan traditions. \n\nAs a pagan myself I think it is ironic that Christians keep our holy days when the bible condemns them.
866788
Have often wondered that myself.The whole Xmas tree and decos,cards and White Christmas theme can be blamed on Queen Victoria and her husband Albert.He was German, and in Europe they have had a combination of the St.Nicolaus (Santa) gift giving and a larger celebration for a few centuries.Though the day of gift giving varies from Xmas day in some countries.In England it used to be on the 26th ,that's why its called Boxing Day.\n But as to why it continued on after the Victorian era ,I have no idea!\n   As you know Jesus was not born anywhere near Xmas.But many other Gods were.So Christianity "adopted" it. \n An obvious reason for its perpetuation is its commercial potential,its been pounded into us so much that we feel the good old post/Christian guilt if we don't buy presents and take part in family rituals and traditions on that day.\n I get a bit 'narked because it is my birthday on the 25th Dec. and it gets lost in among the Xmas trappings.\nSo I have an excuse to celebrate on that date even though I don't pretend to be Christian.
713828
I'd call those hypocrites out. They must be very insecure about their beliefs if they are threatened by Santa. They harp on and on about believing in this higher being, that no one has seen. I'm talking about God, not Jesus (most Christians of late seem to think that they are one and the same, which they are not.) Jesus did walk on this Earth. These same people try to say that Santa is dead. My understanding is that Santa Claus, is a saint; Saint Nicholas. \n\nI grew up in a Christian home, but we also believed in Santa. \nSanta wants you to be good so that you can be rewarded on Christmas morning. You can't see him. I think those ideals gave us the outline of what is expected of us from God. The bible outlines the many rules we must adhere to, or face the dire consequences of the failure to do so. \nSanta just focuses on the positive reinforcement of those biblical bylaws. If we are good all year, get a reward. Nothing wrong with that.
317189
I can see how some would think that, yes. But Santa Claus is just made up and fictional, and its not like anyone worships him  or anything. He was just created to make the holiday more exciting, I think.
1187867
Yes I believe in Santa Claus. There was a fellow who went around doing good deeds for people named Saint Nicholas. He was became a Saint in one of the branch of the Christian Religions. He lived in Turkey during the 4th Century and he was best known for his good deed to a poor man who had three daughters all of them wanted to get married but the father had no money for a dowery for each of his daughters. So that none of them would become prostitutes, Nicholas as he was called at that time went to the man's house and through an open window placed money in each of the daughter's stockings. Hence the idea of putting gifts in one stockings. There is a shrine to him in Bari Italy. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of archers,children,prostitutes, lawyers and pharamacist plus a few other people in different trades. So yes there really is a Santa Clause and he wasn't made up by coke-a-cola.
762404
Santa Claus is a myth based in truth taught to children when they grow up.\n\nIt began as Nicholas Klause hundreds of years ago. Saint Nick (as he came to be known) used to make toys for children and give them out to good little girls and boys on Christmas Day. Bad little girls and boys got nothing but a lump of coal.\n\nSanta Claus is a change in name.\n\nNicholas Klause is long dead but the spirit of what he did lives on. And so his story continues to be taught.\n\nThough, in it's modern incarnation, the parents are actually the people that give out the toys and Santa Claus' name. Most children are told the truth about Santa by the time they're 10 years old.\n\nThe legend is useful for parents to keep control of their little kids behavior (after all, who wants to not get any presents on Christmas Day?) and to allow children to retain their innocence for a while and enjoy the thought that magic actually exists.\n\n:)
405411
Easier to follow than the truth.  As you stated, Christmas is one that is a pagan holiday that has come in through tradition.  The Catholic church has adopted many traditions that the rest of the churches as a whole has also adopted as well.  One is the first day as being the day of worship.  I have seen the writings of all the major religious leaders of all the churches that state the Sabbath of the Bible is the seventh day, not the first, and that they know the Catholic church is the one that did the change and yet they follow the sunday worship anyway, the first day of the week, a pagan holiday.  The venerable day of the Sun, when the pagans worshipped the sun god and the whole world follows the pagan tradition.  Those that say they are Christians and do not follow traditions best do some studying into what they are believing.  I would offer $50,000 cash to anyone that can show me from the bible alone that Sunday, the first day of the week is sanctioned by God to be observed as His worship day.  Look it up on the net and you will find there is no command like that, it is only the tradition from the Catholic church.  Easier to follow the crowd than to lead the crowd.
18967
The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. One of the best known of the St. Nicholas stories is that he saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father by providing them with a dowry so that they could be married. Over the course of many years, Nicholas's popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6. This was traditionally considered a lucky day to make large purchases or to get married. By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe. Even after the Protestant Reformation, when the veneration of saints began to be discouraged, St. Nicholas maintained a positive reputation, especially in Holland.\n\nSt. Nicholas made his first inroads into American popular culture towards the end of the 18th century. In December 1773, and again in 1774, a New York newspaper reported that groups of Dutch families had gathered to honor the anniversary of his death. \n\nThe name Santa Claus evolved from Nick's Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas (Dutch for Saint Nicholas). In 1804, John Pintard, a member of the New York Historical Society, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the society's annual meeting. The background of the engraving contains now-familiar Santa images including stockings filled with toys and fruit hung over a fireplace. In 1809, Washington Irving helped to popularize the Sinter Klaas stories when he referred to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York in his book, The History of New York. As his prominence grew, Sinter Klaas was described as everything from a "rascal" with a blue three-cornered hat, red waistcoat, and yellow stockings to a man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a "huge pair of Flemish trunk hose."\n\nIn 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal minister, wrote a long Christmas poem for his three daughters entitled, "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas." Moore's poem, which he was initially hesitant to publish due to the frivolous nature of its subject, is largely responsible for our modern image of Santa Claus as a "right jolly old elf" with a portly figure and the supernatural ability to ascend a chimney with a mere nod of his head! Although some of Moore's imagery was probably borrowed from other sources, his poem helped to popularize the now-familiar idea of a Santa Claus who flew from house to house on Christmas Eve—in "a miniature sleigh" led by eight flying reindeer, whom he also named—leaving presents for deserving children. "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas," created a new and immediately popular American icon. In 1881, political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on Moore's poem to create the first likeness that matches our modern image of Santa Claus. His cartoon, which appeared in Harper's Weekly, depicted Santa as a rotund, cheerful man with a full, white beard, holding a sack laden with toys for lucky children. It is Nast who gave Santa his bright red suit trimmed with white fur, North Pole workshop, elves, and his wife, Mrs. Claus.
1064834
santa claus real\ngod, man-made\n\nno no no
487818
santa claus is real too.
3687
St. Nicholas was supposedly an Italian saint. However, the origins of Santa Claus lies in the 1300s, i believe, when a turkish man started giving out presents of gold.