The picture of the jolly fat Santa we all know and love was created for a Coca-Cola*  advertisement in 1931

‘You know that jolly, pleasantly plump man in the red suit who only shows his face around Christmas? Santa Claus wasn't always that grandfatherly-looking guy with the hairy face and red cheeks. So how did he come to be? Somebody had to put this mythical personality down on paper. That someone was Haddon Sundblom.

Haddon was born in 1899. Before he drew the first human-like Santa in 1931, people thought Santa looked like some kind of leprechaun or a cross between a gnome and a bishop. That doesn't paint a pretty picture. Coca-Cola* wanted someone friendlier drinking their product so they hired Haddon to come up with a new image. He did a good job too. Haddon's Santa is still a well-known figure today.

Clement Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (popularly known as ‘Twas the night before Christmas’) described the toy maker as "chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf." Haddon changed that elf into a friendly and jolly human. Most artists use props for their pictures and Haddon was no exception. He usually used the neighbours, their kids and their dogs as models. For Santa Claus he used his friend, Lou Prentice, a retired salesman. After Lou died, Haddon looked in the mirror and decided to use himself instead of another model. He didn't have a beard so he just painted one on.’   ^[1]

Haddon Sundblom (looking very Coca-Cola* Santa like)

A photo album of Sundblom Santa’s

Clement Clarke Moore, son of the Episcopalian Bishop of New York, wrote the poem for his children while riding home on a sleigh after buying the Christmas turkey.  The poem was published without Moore’s permission, in a New York newspaper on December 23, 1823.  In his story, Moore depicts the generous gift-giver in the form of a curious little elf who comes down chimneys and travels through the air in a miniature sleigh pulled by eight reindeer called, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder and Blitzen (Moore’s elf also smoked a pipe)

The character of Santa Claus is mostly copied from the life of a real person, a Christian Bishop named Saint Nicholas. The name 'Saint Nicholas' in the Dutch language is Sinta Klaas.  Dutch settlers in New York brought their – Sinter Klaas - to America.  The clothing of Moore’s elf-like Santa is thought to be modeled on the clothing on the dutchman who was driving his sleigh that Christmas night.

The Real Santa

The real Santa - Saint Nicholas was born around 260 AD in Patara, a coastal town in what is now Turkey.  Nicholas was a monk in the monastery of Holy Zion near Myra and rose to lead the monastary and eventually became Archbishop of Myra.  The poor knew him throughout the land for his generosity, his love for children and he is associated with ships, the sea and sailors.

Nicholas has always been honored in the Roman and Greek Churches, but the Russian Church seems to honor him more than any other saint after the Apostles.

Many churches in many countries observe December 6 as Saint Nicholas Day, with great celebrations, processions, services and gift giving.  To this very day people dress as St Nicholas (Sinterklaas) in Holland each November, dressed in the robes of a Bishop, and rides through the streets to the enjoyment of thousands of onlookers, to begin his investigation into the behaviour of the children.^[2]

Why I Believe In Santa!

(The real one)

St. Nicholas as portrayed in an early Orthodox icon^[3]

1/  The real Santa loved the poor

St. Nicholas and three poor sisters^[4]

This famous story about St. Nicolas tells of poor parents who did not have enough money for their daughters (dowry) to get married.  Every young girl needed money to pay for the wedding and to set up house for themselves. 

Nicholas heard about this family and wanted to help them, but he did not want anyone to know that he was the one who was helping them.  St. Nicholas climbed up on the roof of the poor parents house and threw a bag of gold coins down the chimney.  The bag of coins apparently landed in one of the girls' stockings, which had been hung up to dry.  The daughters were able to be married.  Acts of kindness like these contributed to the real Santa becoming well known figure who gave gifts to poor children.

In the middle ages on December 6^th ‘St. Nicholas’ day,  children would be selected to play Bishop and go through the city collecting offerings for poor children.

^[5]

The real Santa would say that Christmas is a good time to reflect on your giving^[6]

A substantial portion of some peoples gift-giving is really just an exchange.  We give presents to others that also give presents to us.  A sacrificial gift is something given to someone who cannot give anything in return

Luke 14:12-14  Then He also said to him who invited Him,  When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. ¹⁴  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

Some of the best gifts you can give are the ones that no one knows you gave.  Some of the best gifts are ones given to people who have nothing to give in return. 

Maybe there’s someone in need you could give an anonymous gift to? 

Luke 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Acts 20:35: (Paul says) In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

The true Santa played an important part in initiating the spirit of giving which has become part of the modern Christmas season. 

I think the true Santa would say to you today  ‘Don’t forget the poor and don’t forget that true giving is rewarded by God who watches from heaven.’

2/  The real Santa never let go of faith in God

St Nicholas:  Pskov School, 15th-16th century^[7]

During the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian, Bishop Nicholas, around 31 years old, was imprisoned and tortured for his beliefs but he never denied his faith in Jesus.  When Constantine became Emperor, Saint Nicholas was released. 

Believing in the  ‘Coca-Cola™ Santa’  takes a lot of faith!

(An Engineer’s Perspective)

1. There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Buddhist religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the Population Reference Bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household; that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.

2. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical).  This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get on to the next house. (That’s really why it’s pointless to stay up and watch for him...) Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth, we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second: 3,000 times the speed of sound.  For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

3. The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child has nothing more than a medium sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the "flying" reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can’t be done with eight or even nine of them --- Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch). 4. 600,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance --- this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip. Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 mps in .001 seconds, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 G’s. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Therefore, if the ‘Coca-Cola*Santa’ did exist, he’s probably dead now.  ^[8]

 ‘Coca -Cola* Santa’ might say to us, “When you love me, your love costs you nothing. You’ve turned me into someone who can give you anything, yet asks you for nothing in return.”  Perhaps this is one of the reasons the ‘Coca-Cola* Santa’ is so popular. 

The real Santa knows that love and faith can be costly.

St. Nicholas - Novgorod School - Late 13th-early 14th century ^[9]

John 3:16-18  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰“For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. ²¹“But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

It’s hard to imagine Santa Claus in prison, but that’s what Diocletian did to this man who loved Jesus.  The real Santa saw devotion to Jesus Christ as very important – He would rather go to prison than deny his Jesus.

1 John 5:3-4:  “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.”

^[10]

3/  The real Santa loved Jesus

Illus:  I recently saw the Tim Allen movie 'Santa Clause 2.'  While I enjoy Tim Allen as an actor, I was disappointed with what I perceived as a further attempt to make the Coca-Cola* Santa christ-like.  The Coca-Cola* Santa in the movie tries to show himself as ‘present at all times’ during people trials and able to offer comfort in their hardships.  These are statements that the real Santa would never have made.

Constantine declared that the celebration of Christ’s birth should be December 25^th.

While some people have a problem with this (as it’s not the actual date of Christ’s birth), those of us who live in Commonwealth nations realize that selecting national holidays may have more to do with practicality than reality.  For example, in Australia the public holiday celebrating the Queen’s birthday is not on the Queens actual birthday, rather it is on a set day regardless of the birthday of the British monarch. 

Christmas was declared as an American national holiday on June 26, 1870.

Photo above: St Nicholas of Bari^[11]

St. Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 with many other bishops, a meeting that produced what we today call "The Nicene Creed". 

Would you like to know what the real Santa believed?

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.  We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.  Through him all things were made.  For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.  For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.  On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.  We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.  He has spoken through the Prophets.  We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.  We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.  We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.  Amen.

St. Nicholas who belived the words of the Nicene Creed  ‘We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come’  died on 6 or 7^th December at Myra, around 342 AD.  His church can still be seen in Myra today.

The real Santa’s faith in Jesus Christ was very costly – but Santa considered faith in Christ to be worth the price - even worth imprisonment.

I think the true Santa would say to you today Enjoy Christmas!  But don’t forget these important verses from the Bible that the real Santa would have known well...

1 Peter 1:8: Though you have not seen him (Jesus), you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

Acts 4:12   There is no other name under heaven by which people are saved than by the name of Jesus Christ.

As parents we have the privilege of creating the traditions that our children will associate with Christmas (especially if we have come from homes without Christmas traditions). 

Question:  Does your Christmas have room for the real Santa?

Our children have enjoyed photos with the Coca-Cola* Santa at the Mall.  We have enjoyed the mythical creation of the Coca-Cola* Santa in the spirit of imagination and fun (we have even eaten a chocolate Santa or two), but we have never told our children that the Coca-Cola* Santa was anything but a fun myth...not to be confused with the Christ of Christmas.  I am not against the Coca-Cola* Santa I just think that the real Santa is better! 

Of course each parent needs to make their own decisions regarding these matters and the teaching of their own children.  I trust these notes may be of help to you. 

Each of our children will face their own ‘faith’ challenges as they grow up in a world that often tries to extinguish the meaning of Christmas.  Teaching children about the real Santa provides them with a real person who also experienced challenges to his faith in Christ.  Honoring the real Santa give parents an opportunity to teach their children about love for Christ, concern for the poor and that there is a price to paid in following Bethlehem’s baby. 

The real Santa would say that ‘no matter what the price of following Christ - it’s worth it!

^[12]

End Sermon

Appendix

Haddon Sundblom: The Coca-Cola* Santa

A Politically Correct Christmas

Haddon Sundblom: The Coca-Cola* Santa

http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Santa/sundblom_santa.htm

In contrast with the "saintly" Claus portrayed by Rockwell, the beginning of the "definitive" American Santa Claus was in the 1920’s, when Coca-Cola* began their major promotion using Santa to promote their drink. Success was minimal until 1931 when artist, Haddon Sundblom created his Santa. His first model was his friend Lou Prentice, a retired salesman. After Prentice’s death in the late 1940s, Sundblom used himself as a model. His annual painting from1931 through 1964 created the Santa, which springs to mind now as the "traditional" Santa. He completed the transformation from a friendly old elf to full-sized human, complete with plump belly, sympathetic face, jovial air, and debonair bearing. In modern versions of the Santa Claus legend, only his toyshop workers are elves.

As noticed previously, Sundblom wasn't the first artist to give Santa a face.  Thomas Nast did so beginning in the mid 1800s, but without a standardization of his features -- or even his size.  When Louis Prang created a Santa Claus Christmas card in 1885, he was wearing a red suit.  So were both of Prang's 1886 Santa cards. Likewise, Norman Rockwell painted Santa before 1931 -- but without the annual consistency.  Sundblom didn't create Santa, but he did give us Santa every year for over 30 years.

Finally, there is a popular fiction that needs to be refuted.  Santa doesn't wear red and white because of Coca-Cola*.  Bearing in mind that Santa Claus is descended from Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (and Bari), and taking note that a bishop's robes are red -- and we have the answer.  It is the red color of a bishop's robes that gave Santa Claus his familiar colors.  For Coca-Cola*, it was just a happy coincidence.

Barbara Charles and J. R. Taylor quoted The New York Times of November 27, 1927:

A standardized Santa Claus appears to New York children. Height, weight, stature are almost exactly standardized, as are the red garments, the hood and the white whiskers.

This was a full four years before Sundblom drew his first Santa for Coke.  For more information, see Barbara Charles and J. R. Taylor, Dream of Santa: Haddon Sundblom’s Advertising Paintings for Christmas, 1931-1964 (New York: Gramercy Books, 1992). An Urban Legends page on Santa Claus also has a complete discussion.

A photo album of Sundblom Santas

By the way, we shouldn’t be too shocked at this "commercialization" of Santa Claus. If anything, the Coca-Cola*Company was way behind the power curve.

Stores began to advertise Christmas shopping in 1820, and by the 1840s, newspapers were creating separate sections for holiday advertisements, which often featured images of the newly popular Santa Claus.

As early as 1841, Santa had been used as an advertising tool since stores had first proclaimed themselves as "Santa's Headquarters." On the day before Christmas that year, J. W. Parkinson of Philadelphia had a real "Criscringle" descending a chimney above the door of his shop to the amazement of all that passed by, especially the children. In 1846, Mr. Parkinson was advertising his store as "Kriss Kringle's Headquarters.

In 1867, Macy’s in New York stayed open until midnight on Christmas Eve.

By the 1870's, Santa Claus was putting in regular appearances in department stores in the United States and Canada. In 1874, Macy’s created its first window display with a Christmas theme. And in 1875 Louis Prang of Boston published the first American Christmas Card. His 1885 and 1886 images showed Santa Claus – and the now-traditional red suit -- much in the same tradition as the earlier American images, but with a softer, gentler look, more the saintly old gent than the jolly old elf.

By the 1880s, the Boston Store in Brockton, Massachusetts, hired Edgar, a Scottish immigrant, who tall, roly-poly, with a white beard, a warm voice and a hearty laugh, to be Santa Claus. To top it off, he loved children. In 1890 he darned a Santa Claus to wear during after school hours. But his fame spread so rapidly that within a few days long lines had formed outside the store and more parents and children arrived by train as far away as Providence, Rhode Island. Before the turn of the century, department stores across America had added Santa Claus and even sat him on a throne. Children sat on his knee and whispered their deepest secrets into his ears. Finally, during the 1890s, Father Christmas began to appear in English stores.

In the early 1890s, the Salvation Army needed money to pay for the free Christmas meals they provided to needy families. They began dressing up unemployed men in red Santa Claus suits and sending them into the streets of New York to solicit donations. Those familiar Salvation Army Santas have been ringing bells on the street corners of American cities ever since.

A Politically Correct Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas and Santa's a wreck... 
How to live in a world that's politically correct? 
  
His workers no longer would answer to "Elves," 
"Vertically Challenged" they were calling themselves. 
  
And labour conditions at the north pole 
Were alleged by the union to stifle the soul. 
  
Four reindeer had vanished, without much propriety, 
Released to the wilds by the Humane Society. 
  
And equal employment had made it quite clear 
That Santa had better not use just reindeer. 
  
So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid, 
Were replaced with 4 pigs, and you know that looked stupid! 
  
The runners had been removed from his sleigh; 
The ruts were termed dangerous by the E.P.A. 
  
And people had started to call for the cops 
When they heard sled noises on their roof-tops. 
  
Second-hand smoke from his pipe had his workers quite frightened. 
His fur-trimmed red suit was called "Unenlightened." 
  
And to show you the strangeness of life's ebbs and flows, 
Rudolf was suing over unauthorized use of his nose 
  
And had gone on Geraldo, in front of the nation, 
Demanding millions in over-due compensation. 
  
So, half of the reindeer were gone; and his wife, 
Who suddenly said she'd enough of this life, 
  
Joined a self-help group, packed, and left in a whiz, 
Demanding from now on her title was Ms. 
  
And as for the gifts, why, he'd ne'er had a notion 
That making a choice could cause so much commotion. 
  
Nothing of leather, nothing of fur, 
Which meant nothing for him. And nothing for her. 
  
Nothing that might be construed to pollute. 
Nothing to aim. Nothing to shoot. 
  
Nothing that clamoured or made lots of noise. 
Nothing for just girls. Or just for the boys. 
  
Nothing that claimed to be gender specific. 
Nothing that's war-like or non-pacific. 
  
No candy or sweets...they were bad for the tooth. 
Nothing that seemed to embellish a truth. 
  
And fairy tales, while not yet forbidden, 
Were like Ken and Barbie, better off hidden. 
   
For they raised the hackles of those psychological 
Who claimed the only good gift was one ecological. 
  
No baseball, no football...someone could get hurt; 
Besides, playing sports exposed kids to dirt. 
  
Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passé; 
And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away. 
  
So Santa just stood there, dishevelled, perplexed; 
He just could not figure out what to do next. 
  
He tried to be merry, tried to be gay, 
But you've got to be careful with that word today. 
  
His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground; 
Nothing fully acceptable was to be found. 
  
Something special was needed, a gift that he might 
Give to all without angering the left or the right. 
  
A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision, 
Each group of people, every religion; 
  
Every ethnicity, every hue, 
Everyone, everywhere...even you. 
  
So here is that gift, its price beyond worth... 
"May you and your loved ones enjoy [Christ’s*] peace on earth." 
(c) Harvey Ehrlich, 1992

*added by editor