Rick Green [00:00:09] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's the WallBuilders Show, a special Christmas show today. Bill Federer is going to give us the history of Santa Claus. We're going to take a quick break early here in the program. We'll be right back with Bill Fedeera on the real Santa Claus. 

Rick Green [00:01:31] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Always good having Bill Federer. Bill, great to see you in Texas last week. 

Bill Federer [00:01:37] Hey, Rick, it was wonderful being there and with Flashpoint and Gene Bailey, and I look forward to being with you again. 

Rick Green [00:01:44] So we just thought here at WallBuilders, it's a great time of year to give people the history of Santa Claus. 

Bill Federer [00:01:50] Yeah, it's fascinating. So, the first three centuries of Christianity, there are 10 major persecutions. Christians are thrown to the lions. And it was during this time that Nicholas was born. He is the most popular Greek Orthodox Saint. Saint Nicholas is the Greek Orthodox, what Saint Peter is to Roman Catholics. That's why you have so many Greeks named Nick, right? And so, a movement was sweeping through Christianity called pietism or monasticism. Where Jesus said to the rich young ruler, one thing you lack, go and sell all, give it to the poor and then come and follow me. So, you would have people becoming Christian and then giving away all their money and then going and joining a monastery and taking vows of silence or living in a cave as a hermit. Anyway, Nicholas gets saved. His parents die, leave him a lot of money. And again, he was born in around 280 AD. And so, he decides he's going to give away his money, but he doesn't want to do it publicly because then he'll get the credit for it and not God. So, he'll, he's in the town of Patara Asia minor today. That's Turkey. And he goes into town at nighttime, throws money in the window of poor people. Supposedly it lands in a shoe or stock and it's trying by the fireplace. And one story that became popular was a merchant in the town had gone bankrupt and the creditors were coming, not just to take his house and lands. But to take his children, he had three beautiful daughters. He knew if they were taken, it would be a terrible life, maybe sex trafficking. And so, Nicholas hears the problem. And, the father thought if he could hurry up and marry the daughters off, the creditors couldn't take him because they wouldn't be belonging to him. That's the way they thought back then. And, but he didn't have money for a dowry, which was needed for a legally recognized wedding. Nicholas hears, the problem throws money in the window one night and the oldest daughter can get married. It's a big buzz. Talk to the town, throws money for the second daughter. And when it's the third daughter's time, the father's waking up. And when Nicholas throws money in, runs outside and catches him, Nicholas makes the father promise not to tell where the money came from because he wants the glory to go to God and not to him. And so that's the origin of the tradition of secret gift-giving on the anniversary of Nicholas' death, midnight visit, stocking by the fireplace. And so in artwork, you'll often see Nicholas pictured with three bags of gold or three gold balls. And believe it or not. That's how he became the patron saint of pawnbrokers. Seriously, you're looking up. So, the pawnbroker say we help families out in their time of financial need. It's like, yeah, it's a little bit of stretch. But anyway, so Nicholas gives away all his money and now he's gonna join a monastery in the Holy Land, Mount Zion monastery. And he's about to take his vows of silence and you'll never hear from him again. But then the Lord somehow tells him not to hide his light under a bushel. So, he goes back to Myra Asia Minor. This is the same area where the seven churches of the book of Revelation are. And he gets off at a city called Myra. Unbeknownst to him, the bishop had died and the church leaders could not decide who the next bishops supposed to be. And they're praying and one gets a dream that it's gonna be the first person to church the next day and he's gonna to be named Nicholas. Well, sure enough, Nicholas is the first person to Church, they break the news, he's the bishop, he was not too thrilled because the Roman emperor was arresting bishops and killing them. 

Rick Green [00:05:03] So this is like when you don't show up at the meeting and they assign you with all the tough jobs, but he showed up. But he showed up and got assigned the tough job. 

Bill Federer [00:05:10] Yeah. I don't know if it's like that, you know, those old cartoons where they're like, all standing up and who's going to volunteer for this dangerous military assignment and everybody takes a step back except one guy, right? Anyway, so Nicholas becomes the bishop he's arrested, he's put in jail and the emperor of the world is of the Roman world is Diocletian. The church leaders are praying and he. He gets struck with an intestinal disease so painful, he abdicates the throne on May 1st, 305 AD. This is a big deal. The most powerful guy in the world is resigning. And by this time, the emperors had been declaring themselves a god, sprinkling gold dust in their hair and demanding their image be worshiped. So, this was sort of like a god resigning, I just think that's sort of funny. Anyway, in the next emperor, Galerius is struck with an intestinal disease and dies. Now to toss-up between four generals, comes down to two, Constantine and Maxentius. The Battle of the Milvian Bridge, 312 A.D., and the day before the battle, Constantine supposedly sees the name of Christ, the sign of Christ in the sky. And he puts it on all of his shields and symbols and they win. And so, he stops the persecution of Christians. What was the sign in Christ? Well, it was the first two Greek letters for the name Christ. And so Old Testament, the word is Messiah, the anointed one. New Testament, it's Christ. And so, the letter that makes the C sound is written as an X and it's called Chi. And the letter makes the R sound is called Rho and it is written as a big P, so it's the XP. And, and so over the centuries, it got shortened just to the X. It was called a Christ cross or the crisscross. And that's where you get Xmas. So, X is not crossing out Christ. It's the Greek letter Chi that stood for Christ. 

Rick Green [00:06:55] No kidding! 

Bill Federer [00:06:55] It's also a part of an oath where he's telling the truth. So, help you God. Well, you would say cross my heart, right? The Chi, the Christ cross. And then if you were going to swear on a document, you would sign at the Christ's cross or that's come down to us a sign at the X and then they would kiss it to show sincerity. That's where you get the X's and the O's on the bottom of a Valentine. Anyway, Constantine, he puts the sheep, the sign of Christ, the XP on all of his shields. He wins and now Nicholas is let out of jail. And so, you have, he preaches against paganism. They had exposure of unwanted infants. This was the Roman practice where the mother would bear the child laid at the father's feet. But if the father did not pick the child up, the mother would have to put the baby in the woods and let it die. 

Rick Green [00:07:44] Wow. 

Bill Federer [00:07:44] The Christians would, would collect these babies. And that's where you get the story of a knock on the door and there's a baby in a basket at a Christian couple who leaves a baby and a basket, the Romans. And so, the Christians had this reputation of being pro-life and rescuing babies. In the third century, 

[00:08:01] All the way back to the third century?

[00:08:02] Yeah, and then Nicholas preached against Diana worship. Nearby, it was at Ephesus with the temple to Diana. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world one hundred twenty-seven huge pillars and temple prostitutes. It was the Las Vegas of the Mediterranean. The apostle Paul preached against Diana worship in Acts 19. Well, Nicholas preaches against it and they tear the temple to Diana down. 

Rick Green [00:08:26] Oh, wow. 

Bill Federer [00:08:26] And then there's a bishop named Arius and he starts the Arian heresy, the first major heresy. And he says, Jesus is less than God. He's a created being. And he writes a catchy song and the Visigoths who were people that had come into the Roman empire, they're converting to Arianism all over the place. And so, it's splitting the church. And since Constantine has legalized Christianity, it's splitting the Roman Empire. So, Constantine orders and pays for all the bishops to come together for the first time ever in one's place, Nicaea. And they write the Nicene Creed, the excommunicates Arius. There's artwork of the bishop sitting in a circle and there's a pit in the middle and that's where Arius is. And by the way, this year is the 1700 anniversary of the Council of Nicea, and I see a 325 A.D. And 2025 A. D. 

Rick Green [00:09:22] Oh, wait, I got to ask you, is that, I vaguely remember, you know, our mutual friend, Kirk Cameron, made that movie about St. Nick, I don't know, five or six years ago, it's been a while, and he has that scene that he recreated of St. Nick, I think even striking that guy or something was, so was St. Nick part, did he lead some of that opposition to shut that down? 

Bill Federer [00:09:42] So, Nicholas was so upset at Arias for starting this heresy that he slapped him across the face at the council. 

Rick Green [00:09:49] Okay, yeah, well, I there's confirmation I was wondering. Yeah, don't tell Kirk. I was questioning his movie. No, no, I'm kidding. Go ahead 

Bill Federer [00:09:56] No, no, I actually gave him my book and he had done his movie based on that. 

Rick Green [00:10:03] Oh, there you go! See I didn't know I knew you had been friends with him for a while. I didn't realize that. Okay, cool This is great. Go ahead 

Bill Federer [00:10:08] Kirk Cameron is tremendous. We love him. And so they have the Council of Nicea. Lots of miracles attributed to Nicholas. One is there was a famine and ships would take the grain from North Africa, that was where the grain fields were, through Asia Minor on their way to Rome. And so, Nicholas goes down to the port and asks the soldiers to unload some of their grain to feed his people. And he promises that God will bless them. Well, on their return trip, they say the grain they had left had multiplied. Sort of like the little widow with the meal barrel and the story of Elijah never went empty. And then there was a storm and the sailors couldn't get back to the dock. They get Nicholas, he prays and the sea becomes calm, sort of Jesus calming the sea. And then, there was corrupt governor who was gonna execute some soldiers who knew about his corruption. Sort of like, you know, a body countless, we're familiar with politicians and people being suicided, right? And so, Nicholas hears about this execution, goes down. Breaks through the crowd, grabs the sword out of the executioner's hand, and then in front of everybody tells what this governor was doing in secret. And the governor realizes nobody could know all these details other than God, and he begs Nicholas to pray for him. Well, so all these stories cause Nicholas to be the most popular Greek Orthodox saint. He dies on December 6, 343 AD. And it's just a Greek tradition of gift giving. So, then you have Justinian, the Roman Emperor, builds a church in Myra and dedicates it to Nicholas. And then 988 AD, Vladimir the Great of Russia converts to Greek Orthodox Christianity and adopts Nicholas as the patron saint of Russia. That's why you have so many czars named Nicholas and then the Muslims invade. People forget in 846 AD, 11,000 Muslims invaded Rome and they trashed the bones of St. Peter and St. Paul. It was after that that Pope Leo built a 39-foot wall around the Vatican. Well, now we're up to the year 1087 and you have the Muslims conquering Asia Minor. All seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation were wiped out by Muslim Turks and they're headed toward Myra. And so the Christians take the remains of their famous Nicholas and they ship it to Bari, Italy. It's a town on the eastern side of Italy on the Adriatic. And it's about a million people live there today, but they have the cathedral and in the basement is the crypt with St. Nicholas' remains. And the Pope that receives these remains of Nicholas is Urban II, and you know Urban II because he's the one that calls for the First Crusade. In other words, Consul of Claremont, 1095 AD, the Pope is begging these European kings to send help to the Greeks, and they do, it's called the First crusade. So now you have Nicholas's. Traditions are in Italy and the gift-giving catches on so much that St Francis of Assisi sort of in protest comes up with the Nativity scene in 1223 AD saying gift-giving is fine but we need to get back to the real reason for the season Jesus the Son of God was born in a manger and God is just He has to judge every sin but He's love and that He provided his own son to take the judgment for the sin in our place. And so, whenever you see a nativity scene with Jesus, Mary, Joseph, donkeys. Think of, you can thank St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 AD. Now you fast forward to Martin Luther, 1517, he starts the Reformation. By this time, there's a Saint's Day for every day of the year. Multiple saints for every and the churches were filled with side altars and relics and people are praying, and Martin Luther considers that a distraction from Christ, and so he ends the Saint's Days. And he clears out the, the churches of all this extra stuff. And, and, but the Germans like the gift giving. And so Martin Luther moves the gift getting from December 6th, St. Nicholas day to December 25th and said, and said all gifts come from the Christ child and the German pronunciation of Christ child is Chris Kindle. I kindergarten, kinder care. And, so, you know, Mifflin Miflinberg, Pennsylvania, you have the, the Chris Kindle market at Christmas time, the Christ child market. And so, and so over the years, Chris Kindel got pronounced Chris Kringle. So Chris Klingle's really Christ child. Martin Luther's also credited, for the lights and the Christmas tree. So, we're all familiar with St. Patrick, leaving Britain and going to Ireland as a missionary, converting these Druids in the fifth century. And they were all illiterate. And so he used a three-leaf clover to teach the Trinity. Well, from Britain in the 700s, you have St. Boniface or called Winfred and he goes to Germany and he goes into the forest to witness to these pagan Germanic tribes. And one of them, they believed that Thor, their pagan God, lived in an oak tree and he was really popular. That's where you get Thor's day. Thursday is Thor's day and then the Germans worship Woden. And that's where you get Woden's day or Wednesday. Matter of fact, the Quakers refused to say Thursday, Wednesday and Thursday. They would say Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, fourth day, fifth day, Friday, Saturday. And so, Boniface takes, they're about to sacrifice either an animal or a, or a boy to Thor. And Bonifice takes an ax and chops down Thor's tree. And a wind comes and knocks it over the rest of the way. And then he points to an evergreen tree and says, let this be the tree of the Christ child. Your houses are built of fir. It points toward heaven. Its leaves are evergreen. And so, it's in the shape of a triangle. And so even Christianity Today had an article saying that the legend is that he used that triangle to teach the Trinity the same way St. Patrick used the three-leaf clover to teach to Trinity. And the cedar is, you know, Abraham planted a tamarisk tree, which is a salt cedar tree. Solomon's temple is, was boarded on the inside with cedar panels from the Cedars of Lebanon. And, and so, anyway, so the Cedar tree became symbolic of Germans converting to Christianity and they would hang them in their houses often upside down from the ceiling. But there was the, the trying and so. It was Martin Luther that's walking home one evening and sees the cold, crisp air and the stars twinkling and he puts candles in the branches of the Christmas tree and he tells his children, this is like the sky above Bethlehem on the night of Christ's birth. And so that's Martin Luther. 

Rick Green [00:17:03] So that's how we get the decorating of the Christmas trees. 

Bill Federer [00:17:06] So England, you have Henry VIII, he brings the reformation there, but not because he wanted to focus on the Christ child, he just wanted another wife. He ended up having six wives. But Henry VIII turned Christmas into a party time. And we remember Rome used to control Britain, right, from about 55 BC, Julius Caesar invading. And so Britain had this Roman community, and the Romans celebrated Saturnalia. Saturn was their god of feasting and plenty and merriment. And if you ever saw the Christmas carol with Charles Dickens, there's the spirit of Christmas present. And it's this big guy with a wreath in his hair and robe with fur and goblet of wine and grapes and all that. And you're looking at him thinking, who is this guy? He sort of looks like Santa, but he also sort of like some Roman God. Well, they were Saturn, but they Christianized him and called him Father Christmas. They couldn't call him Saint Nicholas because saints were outlawed after the Reformation, most of them. And so during Henry the VIII's time, Christmas became this abandonment to partying and they would have a Lord of Misrule, very similar to Mardi Gras. People forget Mardi Gra used to be a religious day. It was the day before Lent when you would fast 40 days before Easter to celebrate the resurrection, but now it's this lewd party in New Orleans. That's sort of what happened under Henry VIII with Christmas. And they would mock executions and they'd have boy bishops, you know, the bishop for a day. And they'd would have food fights in the palace and they would, you know, just jugglers and cross dressing and bare baiting and all kinds of wassling where they drink some booze and throw the rest of it on a, on a plant for a nice harvest the next year. And so, the Puritans come along in England and they don't like all this worldliness and, you know, Cotton Math was a Puritan. He says, can God be honored by mad mirth and hard drinking and lewd gaming and fit for a Bacchus or a Saturn or a Muhammadan, Ramadan, because the Ramadan are the most fast during the day, but they'd eat a lot at night. And he says, certainly our Savior cannot be honored by these things that have more hell in them than heaven. And so, the Puritans forbade Shakespeare from mentioning God in the plays, because you're like casting pearls before swine. You're mentioning the name of God in front of a bunch of drunken theater goers. And then the Puritan's take over England. And they tear down Shakespeare's theater and they actually pass a law outlawing the celebration of Christmas. And so now you have the Pilgrims and Puritans coming to the New World. And the Pilgrams, William Bradford wrote his history of the Plymouth Settlement. He says, in 1621, a second boatload of Pilgrim's came over and they wanted to celebrate Christmas. And he said that they were supposed to go out and work on that day. And, he said that if they made it, they made it a matter of conscience. So, he said, okay, if you're going to make it a matter of conscious, I'll let you stay in. But at noon, they come back from the fields and they see him playing stool ball in the street and pitch the bar and, and William Bradford says it may be against your conscience to work on Christmas, but it's against my conscience that we work while you're playing. So, if you kind of observe it, do it quietly in your homes. The Puritans passed a five shilling fine for anybody caught celebrating Christmas. And so, the pilgrims, Puritans, Presbyterians didn't celebrate Christmas, but the Dutch did. And the Dutch settled New Amsterdam in 1624, just four years after the pilgrims. And the Dutch loved St. Nicholas. So, this is where it gets interesting. So, we heard the saying that Catholics, St. Peter's at the gates of heaven. Well, the Dutch do a take on the book of Revelation where Jesus will return at the end of the world to judge living in the dead, riding a white horse. And the saints will come back with him, riding white horses. And St. Nicholas is a saint so, he'll be one of those riding a white horse, but he's so special to the Dutch he gets to come back once a year for a little mini judgment day, right? A little checkup on the kids, see who's naughty, see who's nice. And so, in Holland to this day, they have St. Nicholas coming once a you're riding a White Horse. And, over the years, that the saints come from heaven well, that turns into the new Jerusalem, the North pole. Turns into the North Pole. And the angels turn into the elves. And the lamb's book of life and the book of works turned into the book of the naughty and the nice. And in Finland and in Norway, they have few horses always riding a reindeer. And, anyway, so the Dutch settle New York and, the first church they found is the St Nicholas Dutch reformed church in 1642 in New York, and it's the oldest, congregation on Madden Island. And they had built several churches. They burned down; they built another one. And-. 

Rick Green [00:22:06] Is it still around? Is there still one there? 

Bill Federer [00:22:08] Well, in 1866, they started building a cathedral. It was the largest Protestant cathedral in America. They finished it in 1872. Teddy Roosevelt went to church there. But as the city became more financial, attendance dwindled. And so in the early 1900s, they sold the building to Sinclair Oil Company. Who tore it down and built a big Sinclair oil building on Fifth Avenue, right? That's right where the church was. And so the congregation, what was left of it, moved out to the Marble Collegiate Church. It's like at 29th Street and Fifth Avenue. And that congregation is still there. And Norman Vincent Peale was the pastor for a while. And who went to that church? None other than the Trump family. So you have the traditions there. But in New York, there's three more quick installments. You have Washington Irving, and he wrote Rick Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and he helped found the Saint Nicholas Society in New York. Well, he writes a fictitious sort of a Paul Bunyan history of New York from the beginning of the Dutch dynasty, right? And it's called a Knickerbocker, Dietrich Knickerbocker's History of New York. And in there, he describes Nicholas coming once a year, but not wearing a bishop's outfit, but wearing a Dutch outfit of baggy trousers called knickerbockers and a leather belt and boots, a stocking hat. And, but he comes once a here, riding his wagon over the treetops, throwing out presents to his favorites. But then that's 1809, 1823 in New York, you have Clement Moore. There's a park in New York called the Clement Moore Park because his family-owned land. And that they donated to build the Episcopal seminary. He's a Hebrew professor. And in 1823, Clement Moore writes a poem for his children, a visit from St. Nicholas. It was a night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicolas would soon be there. So, he's still St. Nicholas, but he just shrunk, right? Then you have the Civil War and you have Thomas Nast, N-A-S-T. He's an illustrator for Harper's Weekly magazine. And you know Thomas Nast because he invented the Republican elephant and the Democrat mule. For his political cartoons. Well, he did a cover of St. Nicholas addressing the Union troops with presents and the North Pole in the background. And it was a political cartoon to say St. Nicholas is associated with the North, not the South, but that's when you begin to see more North Pole stuff. And then you have Haddon Sunblom is an artist that came up with the Quaker Oats Man and Aunt Jemima's syrup. Well, he's hired by Coca-Cola to do for 30 years, a painting of St. Nicholas drinking Coke. And, since Coca-Cola is the best trademark name in the world, everybody in the word knows it and they're advertising this for 30 years, that's the image that went worldwide. Now he's grown a full size again. He's a huggable grandfather, the rosy cheeks, ruddy complexion. But when you say Santa Claus, it's the Dutch pronunciation of St. Nicolaas, St. Nicolaas comes to Sinterklass and finally Santa Claus. And so, when you saying Santa Claus you're, you're using the Dutch pronunciation of St. Nicolaas, but if you peel it all back, go back to Europe, go back to the Dutch, go to the, before the Muslims invade, go back to Greece, there really was a man named Nicholas, who loved Jesus, he was a Christian, he went into the ministry. He was the bishop. He was willing to be imprisoned. He stood up for the Trinity. He confronted corrupt politicians. He was pro-life, preached against exposure of unwanted infants, but he was generous and gave to the poor in their time of need. And that's why we remember, and God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Rick Green [00:26:26] Man, oh, incredible! And there's more folks! There’s more! We didn't get to it all. We ran out of time. There Really is a Santa Claus, the History of St. Nicholas and Christmas Holiday Traditions by Bill Federer. Get the book today at americanminute.com. Thank you for sharing the story of St Nicholas with us today. 

Bill Federer [00:26:42] Oh, thank you, Rick. It's always an honor. 

Rick Green [00:26:44] Thanks so much for listening to WallBuilders