Saint Nicholas, who is known worldwide as Santa Claus, was born in the ancient Lycian city of Patara, an important city on the Mediterranean coast of Türkiye. Around 300 AD, during a prosperous era for Patara, a rich wheat merchant had a son and named him Nicholas.
We hear about Saint Nick in carols like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and stories like The Night Before Christmas, but beyond that the man remains a bit of a mystery. By all accounts, his story begins in the fourth century AD in what is now modern-day Turkey.
Exactly how old is Santa? According to the blog Email Santa, Santa Claus is 1,751 years old as of 2022. In fact, the origins of Santa Claus can be traced all the way back to a monk named Saint Nicholas, who was born between 260 and 280 A.D.
Although widely thought to hail from the North Pole, Santa Claus is in fact originally from Turkey. The BBC's Mark Lowen visited the southern Turkish town of Demre to trace the roots of old Santa.
The biggest difference between the beliefs in Finland compared to Sweden (and North America as well), is that Santa - or Joulupukki - is actually Finnish, and doesn't live at the North Pole, but in a town in northern Finland, in the province of Lapland.
That's right, Rovaniemi – located in the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland – claims the title of Santa's hometown.
Mrs Claus (Mother Christmas)
Nicholas was the 4th-century Greek Bishop of Myra (in present-day Turkey). Under the Roman emperor Diocletian, who persecuted Christians, Nicholas spent some five years in prison—and according to some accounts, in solitary confinement.
Nicholas: The Real Santa Claus. 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 A.D. 280 in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey.
Although Santa and Mrs. Claus almost never have children in any of their many depictions, there is at least one Christmas Burlesque musical from 1892 that features Kitty Claus, the daughter of Santa.
Claus's first name comes from a historically accurate set of stories written by James Rees in 1849. This book of stories is called “Mysteries of City Life.” In it, Mr. Rees asserts that Mrs. Claus's first name is in fact Gertrude.
Coca-Cola did not create the legend of Santa Claus. But Coca-Cola advertising did play a big role in shaping the jolly character we know today. Before 1931, there were many different depictions of Santa Claus around the world, including a tall gaunt man and an elf —there was even a scary Claus.
According to History.com, the monk who over time would evolve into Santa Claus was born in what is now modern-day Turkey in 280 A.D., making him a whopping 1,741 years old!
Many people will tell you that the modern Santa is dressed to match the red-and-white colours of a can of Coke, and was popularised by Coca Cola's advertising in the 1930s.
No. It's widely believed that today's Santa wears a red suit because that's the colour associated with Coca‑Cola, but this isn't the case. Before the Coca‑Cola Santa was even created, St Nick had appeared in numerous illustrations and written descriptions wearing a scarlet coat.
She explains: When they are 6 or 7, whenever you see that dawning suspicion that Santa may not be a material being, that means the child is ready.
In terms of Santa's believe-o-meter, three- and four-year-olds generate the most juice, because that's when they first start to understand the magic of Santa. By age eight, kids begin to acknowledge the unlikeliness of one man travelling the world in a single night.
In his book The Battle for Christmas, the professor Stephen Nissenbaum traces the origins of the Santa lie to a particular decade: the 1820s.
"There is no such thing as being too old to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy," Kelman tells Yahoo Life. "Letting kids figure it out on their own is preferable to parents breaking the news to them.
So after much discussion with himself, Mrs. Claus and the Elves, Santa decided that it was about time he told the world all about his sister Sandy. In SANDY CLAUS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF SANTA CLAUS' SISTER we learn that one of Christmas' most treasured and precious holiday favorites was created by Santa's sister Sandy.
The song describes a scene where a child walks downstairs on Christmas Eve to see his mother kissing "Santa Claus" (his father in a Santa Claus costume) under the mistletoe.
Santa Claus is loosely based on the historical figure and bishop St Nicholas of Myra, born in Lycia which is now part of Turkey. Lycia was Greek speaking at the time which leads us to conclude that Santa must speak Greek.
The Origin and History of a Christmas Legend. The story behind Santa goes back to the third century during the time of St. Nicholas, a monk, even though some sources state that he was a bishop. Nicholas was born around 280 A.D. in Patara, in modern-day Turkey.