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


Related Links
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Saint Nicholas: the Truth Behind Santa Claus IV of X

Santa

You ever noticed how easy it is to transform "Satan" from "Santa"? Just move the "n" to the end. "Satan" appears. . . Hmmm….

An internet Google search on "Satan Claus" [not Santa Claus – but SATAN Claus] found over 1,700 hits! Obviously, there are many that tie the two together.

The rearranging of letters (called anagrams) to hide secret names or words has long been practiced in the occult. The Jewish Encyclopedia writes of the Jewish occult book called the Cabala:

The golden age for anagrams began with the Cabala. The Platonists had strange notions as to the influence of anagrammatic virtues, particularly of anagrams evolved from names of persons. It is not surprising, therefore, that the cabalists, like all the Neoplatonists, pretended to discover occult qualities in proper names and in their anagrams. (www.jewishencyclopedia.com)

One of the most well known anagram in the occult world is the name of Sanat Kumara. Sanat is better known as Satan. Constance Cumbey, writes in her best-selling, new-age expose, The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, ". . . they [New Agers] freely call Sanat Kumara (Satan) 'God'. And their doctrinal reference books by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Alice Ann Bailey freely cross-reference Sanat Kumara with Venus. In occult writings, Lucifer and Venus are one and the same." (Constance Cumbey, The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, p. 138)

Texe Marrs writes of 'Sanat' in Dark Secrets of the New Age:

. . . the New Age offers a being called Sanat Kumara. 'Sanat' is obviously a thinly veiled reference to Satan; nevertheless, New Age teachers evidently believe that the new spelling will alleviate the concerns of those not yet ready to confess Satan as their Lord and Messiah. (Texe Marrs, Dark Secrets of the New Age, pp. 79-80)

H.P. Blavatsky, the Satanist and new age teacher writes in The Secret Doctrine - (Complete Book Here):

Many a mysterious sacred name. . . conveys to the profane ear no more than some ordinary, and often vulgar [common] word, because it is concealed anagrammatically or otherwise. (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol II, p. 78)

Like S-A-N-T-A?

Blavatsky also writes:

"The name isn't important. It is the letters." (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol II, p. 350)

Blavatasky’s anagrams were used to disguise who her true god was. Blavatasky openly taught Satan is mankind’s true redeemer, creator and Saviour.

And now it stands proven that Satan, or the Red Fiery Dragon, the ‘Lord of Phosphorus’ and Lucifer, or ‘Light Bearer’, is in us; it is our Mind — our tempter and Redeemer, our intelligent liberator and Saviour. . . (HP Blavatasky, The Secret Doctrine p. 513)

Satan, the Serpent of Genesis is the real creator and benefactor, the Father of Spiritual mankind. For it is he . . . who opened the eyes of the automaton (Adam) created by Jehovah. . . he still remains in Esoteric Truth the ever loving messenger . . . (H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol 3, p. 243

Gail Riplinger writes in her excellent book, New Age Versions on the use of anagrams in the occult world: Lucifer's True Identity as Satan is Revealed as the Anagram, a Transposition of Letters, To Obscure It. "Blinds," as esoterics call them, include scrambling the letters of a name to hide the true meaning of a word from the uninitiated. (Gail Riplinger, New Age Versions, p. 52)

It is interesting Mrs. Riplinger also raises a red flag about the anagram Santa:

Gods of the New Age include Sanatan and Sanatsiyata, . . . New Agers say each name is 'concealed anagrammatically' 'and are aliases,' and are 'an anagram used for Occult purposes. Is Santa, the great usurper of Christ's attention at Christmas, an anagram? "Ole Nick" is listed among the fallen angels or devils in the Dictionary of Fallen Angels. Scholars concur that Christ was born in the fall on the 4th day of the feast of tabernacles. December 25 is actually "the feast in honor of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven, later called Saturnaha by the heathen Romans. (Gail Riplinger, New Age Versions, p. 52)

Santa is also from the Latin word sanctus which means also saintly, holy. Our English words "saint, sanctify, et al" comes from santa. Sounds like Satan’s "I will be like the most High" plan is in action.

Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy. Psalm 99:3

God’s name is called "holy" over 40 times in the King James Bible.

"Holy Claus". . .?

The name Santa Claus is also derived from the Dutch Sinter Klaas, which also was a form of Saint Nicholas.

What about Claus? The Alice Bailey founded new age, occult publishing company was originally named Lucifer Publishing Company but in 1924 the name was cleverly changed to Lucis Trust. By the way, the Lucifer worshipping Lucis Trust is a major player in the works of the United Nations, formerly located in the United Nations building but now located on prime-time 1200 Wall Street. Claus sounds a lot like "claws." Maybe Santa Claus means "Satan's Claws"? Like a lion's "claws"? Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:1 Peter 5:8

Jolly Old St. Nick While Santa and Claus may be disguising their real meaning – there is no disguising St. Nick. He is a well-known character.

Old Nick: A well-known British name of the Devil. It seems probable that this name is derived from the Dutch Nikken, the devil...(Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, p.650)

Nick, the devil. (Walter W. Sleay, Concise Dictionary of English Etymology, 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 Vol III D-E)

Actor Adam Sandler and New Line Studios are obviously aware Nick is an alias for Satan. Their movie Little Nicky is about the son of Satan named Little Nicky. A teaser for the film says, "If your mother was an angel and your father was the devil you'd be messed up too." In the popular Cloud Ten Pictures "Apocalypse" film series Revelation, Tribulation, & Judgment, the Antichrist just so happens to be played by none other than the actor "Nick" Mancuso. Hmmm… The Cloud Ten Pictures are based on Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkin’s popular Left Behind Apocalypse book series. Oh, the name of the Antichrist in the Left Behind series? Nicolae "Nick" Carpathia, of course. In fact, one of the books in titled, Nicolae, The Rise of the Antichrist. It is also interesting, the book American Slang defines the slang word nick: to rob or steal. (Robert L. Chapman, American Slang, p. 297)

This is how the Lord Jesus characterizes the devil in John 10:

1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. . .
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:1,9,10

Father Christmas The Christmas Poem reads:

Hurry up please Christmas Day,
When Father Christmas on his sleigh,
Comes to pay a visit.
Into every house he creeps
While each of us soundly sleeps
While he pays a visit.

The famous anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss writes in his popular analysis of "Father Christmas":

Father Christmas is dressed in scarlet: he is a king. His white beard, his furs and his boots, the sleigh in which he travels evoke winter. He is called "Father" and he is an old man, thus he incarnates the benevolent form of the authority of the ancients.

In other words, Father Christmas is God incarnate. Levi-Strauss goes on to write that children believe in him, paying homage to him with letters and prayers. The Devil’s stated goal in Isaiah 14:13-14, is to be like God the Father. And what better "I will be like the most High. . - name to fame" than "Father of Christ-mass".

And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
Matthew 23:9

What about Kriss Kringle?

And there is the seemingly innocent, friendly, jingle-jangle name of Kriss Kringle.

By far, the name Kriss Kringle is the most blasphemous. With Kriss, Satan slowly removes the mask. There is no doubt about the intentions of "Kriss Kringle". Believe it or not. . . Kriss Kringle is German for "little Christ Child".

Kriss Kringle A US name for Santa Claus derived from the German Christkindl (little Christ child).
(Brewer's Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Phrase and Fable, p. 334)

Santa Claus or Kriss Kringle is the counterfeit "Christ Child"! Is it possible that these subtle allusions to Satan and counterfeit attacks at the Lord Jesus Christ are just merely coincidences? Keep reading. . . The evidence has just begun.

• http://www.stnicholascenter.org
  
• http://www.av1611.org/othpubls/santa.html

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