The Faces of Santa Claus

It seems that Santa Claus has been with us a long, long time, continually changing as people shared their traditions, adding and discarding as their societies changed. As you scroll down the page, you are moving backwards in time, seeing the many faces of Santa Claus that contributed to the Santa Claus that we know and love today.

Santa Claus

Appearance: Full white beard, fat, jovial, ruddy cheeked
Clothing: White fur trimmed red Jacket, red cap and red trousers, dark boots
Travel: Reindeer sleigh
Customs: Comes down the chimney and fills stockings
Companions: Elves. Mrs. Claus
Home: Nast established Santa's official residence at the North Pole in 1885 when he sketched two children looking at a map of the world and tracing Santa's journey from the North Pole to the United States. The following year, the American writer, George P. Webster, took up this idea, explaining that Santa's toy factory and "his house, during the long summer months, was hidden in the ice and snow of the North Pole"

Pere Noel

Clothing: Long red hooded robe, edged with white fur. His presents are carried not in a sack, but in a basket on his back.
Customs: Children put out shoes in front of the fireplace
Gifts: Candy, fruit, nuts and small toys are hung on the le sapin de noël: Christmas tree, For some good children, he gifts twice; once on December 6th, St. Nicholas Eve (December 6th), and once on Christmas Eve, December 24th.
Companions: Is accompanied by Père Fouettard, a sinister figure dressed in black, who gives out spankings to bad children.

Kriss Kringle

Known As: Christ Kindl (Christ-child). The German name of the Christ Child is Christkind
Appearance: His messenger is a young child with a golden crown who holds a tiny "Tree of Light."
Customs: Brings the gifts of the Christ Child.

Sinterklaas

Known As: De Goede Sint - The Friendly Saint
Appearance: A kind and wise old man with a white beard
Clothing: White dress, red cloak, a crosier
Travel: Rides the skies and roofs of houses on his white horse
Home: Spain
Customs: Visits on his birthday, December 5th or 6th
Gifts: Various gifts, if you were good
Companions: Zwarte Piet ("Black Peter"), also called Black Jacks
Notes: The Black Jacks gather information about your behavior for the year. If you were good, you get presents.. If you were bad, the Black Jacks will beat you with their rods or put you in a bag and take you back to Spain

Knecht Ruprecht (meaning Servant Rupert)

Known As: Black Peter, Pelznickle, Aschen (Ash Nicholas), Rider of the White Horse

Appearance: Fur clad, blackened with soot
Travel: Traveled with St. Nicholas
Visits: Delivered the presents down the chimney for St. Nicholas
Customs: Carried a sack of ashes as well as a bundle of switches
Notes: He was called Black Peter because he delivered the presents down the chimney for St. Nicholas and became blackened with soot. Over time, Knecht Ruprecht and St. Nicholas merged to form Ru Klaus (Rough Nicholas) because of his rugged appearance, Aschen Klaus (meaning Ash Nicholas) because he carried a sack of ashes as well as a bundle of switches and Pelznickle (Furry Nicholas)

Saint Nicholas

Appearance: A kindly saint, not overweight
Clothing: Wears the robes of a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.
Customs: Hands out presents to the children. Children also put their shoes in front of the fireplace to be filled with candy and presents by morning.
Travels; Sometimes travels with a donkey.
Companions: Angels that help St. Nicholas to keep his book of good and bad deeds and help to protect the chldren fom Krampus, the Devil, Père Fouettard who accompany St. Nicholas and punish bad children.

Joulupukki

Companions: Joulupukki has a wife, Joulumuori - Old Lady Christmas
Known As: Yule Goat or Christmas Goat
Appearance: Wears warm red clothes and uses a walking stick
Travel: Travels in a sleigh driven by a number of reindeer (but the reindeer don't fly)
Home: Korvatunturi, Lapland, Finland
Customs: Knocks on the front door during the Christmas eve celebration. When he comes in, his first words are traditionally "Are there (any) nice children here?"
Notes: In an old Finnish tradition, people dressed in goat hides, (as nuuttipukki), and went around from house to house after Christmas eating leftover food.

Tomte

Known As: Nisse, Tonttu
Appearance: A small, elderly man (varies from a few inches to about half the height of an adult man), often with a full beard. He is not overweight.
Clothing: Dresses in the everyday clothing of a farmer - typically attired in grey woolen clothes, a red cap. Later turned into the white-bearded, red-capped friendly figure associated with Christmas when a poem illustrated by Jenny Nyström was created.
Travel: Sometimes rides in a sleigh drawn by reindeer or walks around with his sack. His reindeer don't fly
Home: In Sweden he's thought to live in a forest nearby, in Denmark he lives on Greenland, and in Finland he lives in Lapland
Customs: He doesn't come down the chimney at night, but through the front door, delivering the presents directly to the children
Companions: Often with a horse or cat, or riding on a goat or in a sled pulled by a goat

Grandfather Frost

Known As: Ded Moroz
Clothing: Long fur coat covered by bright beautiful cloth (blue or red) trimmed in fur
Travel: Troika of white horses
Home: Grandfather Frost lives in the town Veliky Ustug
Customs: Visits on New Year
Gifts: Puts on a New Year party for children as well as bringing them gifts
Companions: Always accompanied by his granddaughter Snegurochka (Snow girl)

Yule King

Known As: Lord of Misrule, King Winter, Winter King, Holly King, Yule Spirit, King Frost
Appearance: A jolly giant, has a well-fed belly, and sports a burly beard
Clothing: Fur hat or crown, he wears red or green, and a crown of leaves. The Lord of Misrule was a red or green-robed jester
Customs: The Yule King visits at firesides. As Lord of Misrule, he presides over the Yuletide festivities

Father Christmas

Known As: Old Winter, Old Christmas
Appearance: Well-nourished bearded man, typified the spirit of good cheer
Clothing: Long, green, fur-lined robe, representing the return of spring, fur-lined hood (not a cap)
Customs: An elder man from the community dressed in furs and visited each dwelling. At each house, in the guise of "Old Winter" he would be plied with food and drink before moving on to the next. It was thought he carried the spirit of the winter with him, and that the winter would be kind to anyone hospitable to Old Winter.
Notes: Father Christmas did not bear gifts until he merged with the American version of Santa Claus in the late 1800s

Yule God

Real Name: Thor, a Norse God
Temperament: Cheerful and friendly, never harming humans but rather helping and protecting them
Appearance: Elderly man, heavy build, long white beard
Travel: Chariot pulled by two white goats, Cracker and Gnashwer
Home: In the Northland, among icebergs
Customs: Comes down the chimney - visits in front of the fireplace
Symbols: The color red, fire

Odin

Real Name: Odin, the chief of the Norse Gods

Known As: Pelznickle, meaning Furry Nicholas, and as Rider of the White Horse
Appearance: Old, mysterious man with a beard, may be shown with one eye missing
Clothing: Long blue hooded cloak, carrying a staff and sometimes a satchel of bread
Travel: Rides Sleipnir, a flying horse with eight legs
Customs: Children leave straw filled shoes by the chimney to feed Sleipnir
Gifts: He would sometimes leave the bread as a gift at poor homesteads
Companions: Either a Raven or Crow
Notes: The Vikings believed that Odin visited Earth during Jultid (Yuletide) on Sleipnir


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Saint Nicholas: the Truth Behind Santa Claus II of X

Where did Santa come from?

Nearly all Santa researchers agree that some traits of Santa was borrowed from Norse [Scandinavian] mythology.

Encyclopedia Britannica describes the role of Nordic mythology in the life of Santa:

Sinterklaas was adopted by the country's English-speaking majority under the name Santa Claus, and his legend of a kindly old man was united with old Nordic folktales of a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good children with presents. ("Santa Claus" Encyclopaedia Britannica 99)

Some Santa researchers associate Santa with the Norse "god" of Odin or Woden. Crichton describes Odin as riding through the sky on an eight-legged, white horse name Sleipnir. (Santa originally had eight reindeers, Rudolph was nine). Odin lived in Valhalla (the North) and had a long white beard. Odin would fly through the sky during the winter solstice (December 21-25) rewarding the good children and punishing the naughty. (Crichton, Robin. Who is Santa Claus? The Truth Behind a Living Legend. Bath: The Bath Press, 1987, pp. 55-56)

Mythologist Helene Adeline Guerber presents a very convincing case tracing Santa to the Norse god Thor in Myths of Northern Lands:

Thor was the god of the peasants and the common people. He was represented as an elderly man, jovial and friendly, of heavy build, with a long white beard. His element was the fire, his color red. The rumble and roar of thunder were said to be caused by the rolling of his chariot, for he alone among the gods never rode on horseback but drove in a chariot drawn by two white goats (called Cracker and Gnasher). He was fighting the giants of ice and snow, and thus became the Yule-god. He was said to live in the "Northland" where he had his palace among icebergs. By our pagan forefathers he was considered as the cheerful and friendly god, never harming the humans but rather helping and protecting them. The fireplace in every home was especially sacred to him, and he was said to come down through the chimney into his element, the fire. (Guerber, H.A. Myths of Northern Lands. New York: American Book Company, 1895, p. 61)Even today in Sweden, Thor represents Santa Claus. The book, The Story of the Christmas Symbols, records: Swedish children wait eagerly for Jultomten, a gnome whose sleigh is drawn by the Julbocker, the goats of the thunder god Thor. With his red suit and cap, and a bulging sack on his back, he looks much like the American Santa Claus. (Barth, Edna. Holly, Reindeer, and Colored Lights, The Story of the Christmas Symbols. New York: Clarion Books, 1971, p. 49)

Thor was probably history’s most celebrated and worshipped pagan god. His widespread influence is particularly obvious in the fifth day of the week, which is named after him – Thursday (a.k.a. Thor’s Day). It is ironic that Thor’s symbol was a hammer. A hammer is also the symbolic tool of the carpenter – Santa Claus. It is also worth mentioning that Thor’s helpers were elves and like Santa’s elves, Thor’s elves were skilled craftsman. It was the elves who created Thor’s magic hammer.

In the Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, author Francis Weiser traces the origin of Santa to Thor: "Behind the name Santa Claus actually stands the figure of the pagan Germanic god Thor." (Weiser, Francis X. Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1952, p. 113) After listing some the common attributes of Thor and Santa, Weiser concludes: Here, [Thor] then, is the true origin of our "Santa Claus." . . . With the Christian saint whose name he still bears, however, this Santa Claus has really nothing to do. (Weiser, Francis X. Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1952, p. 114) Another interesting trait of Thor is recorded by H.R. Ellis Davidson in Scandinavian Mythology, "It was Thor who in the last days of heathenism was regarded as the chief antagonist of Christ." (Davidson, H.R. Ellis. Scandinavian Mythology. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1982, p. 133) In case you are not aware, an "antagonist" is an enemy, adversary or replacement.

The bizarre and mutual attributes of Thor and Santa are no accident. While the pagan brush strokes of Norse mythology has painted some of the traits of Santa Claus, there exists another brush stroke coloring Santa that bids our inspection.

There is a little-known piece in the life of Santa that time and tradition has silently erased. Few people are aware that for most of his life, St. Nicholas (Sinter Klaas, Christkind, et. al.) had an unusual helper or companion. This mysterious sidekick had many names or aliases. He was known as Knecht Rupprecht; Pelznickle; Ru-Klas; Swarthy; Dark One; Dark Helper; Black Peter; Hans Trapp; Krampus; Grampus; Zwarte Piets; Furry Nicholas; Rough Nicholas; Schimmelreiter; Klapperbock; Julebuk; et. al.

Though his name changed, he was always there. Some other well known titles given to St. Nick’s bizarre companion is a demon, evil one, the devil and Satan. One of his dark duties was to punish children and "gleefully drag them to hell." The following references are provided to demonstrate the "devil" who accompanies St. Nicholas is a well documented fact. In every forerunner of Santa this dark and diabolic character appears. It is the Christkind who brings the presents, accompanied by one of its many devilish companions, Knecht Rupprecht, Pelznickle, Ru-Klas. . . (Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, p. 70) In many areas of Germany, Hans Trapp is the demon who accompanies Christkind on its gift-giving round. . . (Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, p. 75) Another Christmas demon from lower Austria, Krampus or Grampus, accompanies St. Nicholas on December 6. (Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, p. 94) Like Santa, Sinterklaas and the Dark Helper were also supposed to have the peculiar habit of entering homes through the chimney. . . (Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 102) In Sarajevo in Bosnia, Saint Nickolas appears with gifts for the children in spite of the war and shelling. He is assisted by a small black devil who scares the children. (Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 102) Ruprecht here plays the part of bogeyman, a black, hairy, horned, cannibalistic, stick-carrying nightmare. His role and character are of unmitigated evil, the ultimate horror that could befall children who had been remiss in learning their prayers and doing their lessons. He was hell on earth. (Siefker, Phyllis. Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1997, p. 155) In Holland, Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) wore a red robe while riding a white horse and carried a bag of gifts to fill the children's stockings. A sinister assistant called Black Pete proceeded Sinterklaas in the Holland tradition to seek out the naughty boys and girls who would not receive gifts. ("History of Santa Claus," ) The Christian figure of Saint Nicholas replaced or incorporated various pagan gift-giving figures such as the Roman Befana and the Germanic Berchta and Knecht Ruprecht. . . He was depicted wearing a bishop's robes and was said to be accompanied at times by Black Peter, an elf whose job was to whip the naughty children.("Santa Claus" Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99) Christmas historian Miles Clement relates that no "satisfactory account has yet been given" to the origins of these demons and devils that appear with St. Nicholas. It can hardly be said that any satisfactory account has yet been given of the origins of this personage, or of his relation to St. Nicholas, Pelzmarte, and monstrous creatures like the Klapperbock. (Miles, Clement A. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition Christian and Pagan. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1912, p. 232) Maybe a satisfactory account has been given. Let us keep reading. Previously, we established the peculiar fact that today’s Santa Claus and St. Nicholas are not the same. They never have been. Santa Claus is dressed in a long shaggy beard, furs, short, burly and obese. The legends of St. Nicholas portrayed a thin, tall, neatly dressed man in religious apparel. You could not possibly find two different characters. If Nicholas, the ascetic bishop of fourth-century Asia Manor, could see Santa Claus, he would not know who he was. (Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, pp. 138,141)

So the legends of Saint Nicholas afford but a slight clew to the origin of Santa Klaus,–alike, indeed, in name but so unlike in all other respects. (Walsh, William S. The Story of Santa Klaus. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1970, p. 54)

The startling fact is, Santa Claus is not the Bishop St. Nicholas – but his Dark Helper!

In certain German children’s games, the Saint Nicholas figure itself is the Dark Helper, a devil who wants to punish children, but is stopped from doing so by Christ. (Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 105)

Black Pete, the ‘grandfather’ of our modern Santa Claus. Known in Holland as Zwarte Piet, this eighteenth-century German version, is—like his ancient shamanic ancestor—still horned, fur-clad, scary, and less than kind to children. Although portrayed as the slave helper of Saint Nicholas, the two are, in many villages, blended into one character. This figure often has the name Nikolass or Klaus, but has the swarthy appearance of the Dark Helper. (Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 98)

Artist Thomas Nast is rightfully credited for conceiving the image of our modern day Santa, but Nast’s model for Santa was not the Bishop St. Nicholas but his dark companion, the evil Pelznickle.

The Christmas demon Knecht Rupprecht first appeared in a play in 1668 and was condemned by the Roman Catholic as being a devil in 1680. . . To the Pennsylvania Dutch, he is known as Belsnickel. Other names for the same character are Pelznickle, "Furry Nicholas," and Ru-Klas, "Rough Nicholas." From these names, it is easy to see that he is looked upon as not merely a companion to St. Nicholas, but almost another version of him. (Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, pp. 93,94)

In Thomas Nast: His Period and His Pictures, biographer Albert Bigelow Paine, documents that Nast’s Santa was Pelznickle.

But on Christmas Eve, to Protestant and Catholic alike, came the German Santa Claus, Pelze-Nicol, leading a child dressed as the Christkind, and distributing toys and cakes, or switches, according as the parents made report. It was this Pelze-Nicol – a fat, fur-clad, bearded old fellow, at whose hands he doubtless received many benefits – that the boy in later years was to present to us as his conception of the true Santa Claus – a pictorial type which shall lone endure. (Paine, Albert Bigelow. Thomas Nast: His Period and His Pictures. New York: Chelsea House, 1980, p. 6)

Santa historian and author, Tony van Renterghem also documents Nast’s Santa Claus was not Saint Nicholas, but the evil Black Pete–the devil.

Thomas Nast was assigned to draw this Santa Claus, but having no idea what he looked like, drew him as the fur-clad, small, troll-like figure he had known in Bavaria when he was a child. This figure was quite unlike the tall Dutch Sinterklaas, who was traditionally depicted as a Catholic bishop. Who he drew was Saint Nicholas’ dark helper, Swarthy, or Black Pete (a slang name for the devil in medieval Dutch). . . (Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, pp. 95-96)

Santa researcher, Phyllis Siefker, echoes Renterghem’s conclusion:

It seems obvious, therefore, that Santa Claus can be neither the alter ego of Saint Nicholas nor the brainchild of Washington Irving. . . If we peek behind the imposing Saint Nicholas, we see, glowering in the shadows, the saint’s reprobate companion, Black Pete. He, like Santa, has a coat of hair, a disheveled beard, a bag, and ashes on his face. . . In fact, it is this creature, rather than Irving’s creation or an Asian saint, who fathered Santa Claus. (Siefker, Phyllis. Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1997, p. 15)

By the way, St. Nicholas did not come down the chimney. It was his fur-clad, dark companion that came down the chimney. One of the reasons his sidekick was called the "Dark One" or "Black Peter" was because he was normally covered in soot and ashes from his chimney travels. The "dark companion" also carried the bag, distributed the goodies and punished the bad boys and girls.

Children [in Holland] are told that Black Peter enters the house through the chimney, which also explained his black face and hands, and would leave a bundle of sticks or a small bag with salt in the shoe instead of candy when the child had been bad. ("Saint Nicholas," Wikipedia Encyclopedia. )

It is significant that Black Peter, Pelze-Nicol, Knecht Rupprecht and all of St. Nicholas companions are openly identified as the devil.

To the medieval Dutch, Black Peter was another name for the devil. Somewhere along the way, he was subdued by St. Nicholas and forced to be his servant. (Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, p. 44)

In Denmark, Sweden, and Norway creatures resembling both the Schimmelreiter and the Klapperbock are or were to be met with at Christmas. . . People seem to have had a bad conscience about these things, for there are stories connecting them with the Devil. A girl, for instance, who danced at midnight with a straw Julebuk, found that her partner was no puppet but the Evil One himself. (Miles, Clement A. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition Christian and Pagan. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1912, p. 202)

Thus, in parts of Europe, the Church turned Herne into Saint Nicholas’ captive, chained Dark Helper, none other than Satan, the Dark One, symbolic of all evil. (Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 97)

One of the bizarre jobs of St. Nick’s devilish helper was to "gleefully drag sinners" to hell!

On the eve of December 6, the myth told that this bearded, white-haired old ‘saint,’ clad in a wide mantel, rode through the skies on a white horse, together with his slave, the swarthy Dark Helper. This reluctant helper had to disperse gifts to good people, but much preferred to threaten them with his broom-like scourge, and, at a sign of his master, would gleefully drag sinners away to a place of eternal suffering. (Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 111)

It is also alarming that Santa’s popular title, "Nick," is also a common name for "the devil."

Old Nick: A well-known British name of the Devil. It seems probable that this name is derived from the Dutch Nikken, the devil..." (Shepard, Leslie A. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. New York: Gale Research Inc. 1991, p. 650)

Nick, the devil. (Skeat, Walter W. Concise Dictionary of English Etymology. Ware: Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1993, p. 304)

Devil: Besides the name Satan, he is also called Beelzebub, Lucifer . . . and in popular or rustic speech by many familiar terms as Old Nick . . . (Oxford English Dictionary)

Nicholas is one of the most common devil’s names in German, a name that remains today when Satan is referred as Old Nick. (Siefker, Phyllis. Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1997, p. 69)

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=23

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