Saint Nicholas Day

by Jen Harris

Just before our third child was born, we were wrestling through the many things that young couples do when they are growing their family, especially as regards holidays. How are we going to celebrate Easter? Christmas? All Hallow’s Eve? Thanksgiving? Canadian Thanksgiving? What about Canada Day, BC Day, Victoria Day, or Remembrance Day… all the holidays I celebrated in the first 30 years of my life? There are so many decisions to make as parents. As each season rolled around, I have enjoyed making our family traditions meaningful and festive for us and our kids. What really fascinated me was the rich church history behind these holidays, or holy-days.

As I did many times in that season of life, and still do, I went to a trusted friend who was much farther along in marriage and parenting than myself. I probably unloaded my children in her kitchen while they went off to toddle and play, plopped myself down at her kitchen table, and asked my burning questions while she brought me a delicious hot drink to warm my anxious soul.


“What do you do with Santa? My kids are getting older and starting to notice this old guy with a white beard and a red suit in stores. I don’t want the focus of Christmas to be on consumerism and Santa Clause, but on Jesus being born to be our Savior!” That’s when she told me about St Nicholas Day, a feast day in the liturgical calendar that remembers the life of a Christian bishop from Myra who loved Jesus and became known for his generosity. This is where the modern day character of Santa Clause came from (the name is derived from the dutch name Sinterklaas or Sint-Nicolaas). Celebrating this day proved to be the sweet solution to my holiday conundrum.

St Nicholas Day became a day when we could introduce our children to the story of a man who loved Jesus, grew up in far away Turkey, became an ordained bishop, experienced severe persecution from Diocletian, was jailed during the Great Persecution, attended the Council of Nicaea, and stood up for truth against a heretic named Arius. He also became known for generous giving to those in need. So many questions can come from these discussions including: what is persecution? Why was he jailed? Why did he slap Arius in the face? What’s the Council of Nicaea? Where is Myra? When did he live? Why should we remember this man? Suddenly stockings meant a whole lot more than they ever did before.

Traditionally in European countries, St Nicholas Day is still the day when parents hang stockings, or place their shoes outside the house to be “magically” filled with treats and candy and small gifts for children. In America, it is custom to wake up on Christmas Day and open all the gifts and stockings together. Growing up in a German Mennonite Christian household, my sisters and I opened all our gifts on Christmas Eve, a German tradition likely originating with Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation to take away the focus of celebrating saints feast days in the Roman Catholic church.

Whatever your tradition and your reasons for it, wisdom encourages us to learn from Christians of the past. Celebrating this day is a fun way to remember someone from church history and his love for Jesus, but it also solved my original question: what do we do with Santa? Our answer, we tell the truth, that there was once a man who loved Jesus so much, that he defended God’s Word, served the poor, and gave generously to anyone he could help. And then, we eat chocolate!

To learn more about Saint Nicholas, check out these links and books:

Ligonier: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/saint-nicholas-origins-santa-claus?srsltid=AfmBOorDgv-Jzly2C2wtT7dUP53XSOk1iNOPUQpnWyF6ZoGeGTO5SOvS

Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver by Ned Bustard

Santa's Favorite Story: Santa Tells the Story of the First Christmas

by Hisako Aoki and Ivan Gantschev

Little Book Big Story: http://littlebookbigstory.com/tag/st-nicholas/

By Théa Rosenburg