SANTA’S
DIRTY LITTLE
SECRET!

by The OUTLAWLADY

SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS -
OR JUST AN EVIL SPIRIT?

        How did a kindly Christian saint, good BISHOP NICHOLAS, become a roly-poly red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity and commercial activity?

        Colonists came to America after the Reformation in the 1500s. They were primarily Puritans, and other Protestant reformers, who did not bring Nicholas traditions to the New World. What about the Dutch? Although it is nearly universally reported that the Dutch did bring St. Nicholas to New Amsterdam, scholars find limited evidence of such traditions in Dutch New Netherland. Colonial Germans in Pennsylvania held the feast of St. Nicholas, and several accounts do have St. Nicholas visiting New York Dutch on New Years’ Eve. Patriots formed the Sons of St. Nicholas in 1773, not to honor Bishop Nicholas, but rather as a non-British symbol to counter the English St. George societies. This St. Nicholas society was similar to the Sons of St. Tammany in Philadelphia. Not exactly St. Nicholas, the children’s gift-giver. ^[2]

        After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered with pride the colony’s nearly-forgotten Dutch roots. JOHN PINTARD, influential patriot and antiquarian, who founded the New York Historical Society in 1804, promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both society and city. In January 1809, WASHINGTON IRVING joined the society and on St. Nicholas Day that year, he published the satirical fiction, “Knickerbocker’s History of New York,” which made numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character. This was not a saintly bishop, rather an elfin Dutch burgher with a clay pipe. These delightful flights of imagination are the origin of the New Amsterdam St. Nicholas legends: that the first Dutch emigrant ship had a figurehead of St. Nicholas; that St. Nicholas Day was observed in the colony; that the first church was dedicated to him: and that St. Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts. Irving’s work was regarded as the “first notable work of imagination in the New World.”

         The New York Historical Society held its first St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6, 1810. John Pintard commissioned artist ALEXANDER ANDERSON to create the first American image of Nicholas, for the occasion. Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role, with children’s treats in stockings, hanging at a fireplace. The accompanying poem ends, “Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! To serve you ever was my end, If you will, now, me something give, I’ll serve you ever while I live.” ^[3]

         The jolly elf image received a big boost in 1823, from a poem destined to become immensely popular, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” now better known as “THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS”:

                            “He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
                              And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

                             A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
                             And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

                          His eyes - how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
                            His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

                            His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
                            And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

                           The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
                           And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

                          He had a broad face and a little round belly,
                          That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

                          He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf...”

        Washington Irving’s St. Nicholas strongly influenced the poem’s portrayal of a round, pipe-smoking, elf-like St. Nicholas. The poem generally has been attributed to CLEMENT CLARK MOORE, a professor of UBiblical languages at New York’s Episcopal General Theological Seminary. However, a case has been made by DON FOSTER in ‘Author Unknown,’ that HENRY LIVINGSTON actually penned it in 1807, or 1808. Livingston was a farmer/patriot, who wrote humorous verse for children. In any case, “A Visit from St. Nicholas” became a defining American holiday classic. No matter who was the author, it has had an enormous influence on the American transformation of St. Nicholas.

        Other artists and writers continued the change to an elf-like St. Nicholas, “Sancte Claus,” or “Santa Claus,” unlike the stately European bishop. In 1863, political cartoonist THOMAS NAST began a series of annual drawings in “Harper’s Weekly,” which were based on the descriptions found in the poem, and Washington Irving’s work. These drawings established a rotund Santa with flowing beard, fur garments, and an omnipresent clay pipe. As Nast drew Santas until 1886, his work had considerable influence in forming the American Santa Claus. Along with changes in appearance, the saint’s name changed to Santa Claus, as a natural phonetic alteration from the German “Sankt Niklaus,” and the Dutch “Sinterklaas.”

        Dozens of artists portrayed Santa in a wide range of styles, sizes, and colors, including NORMAN ROCKWELL, on “Saturday Evening Post” covers. But, it was in the 1930s, that the now-familiar American Santa image solidified. HADDON SUNDBLOM began thirty-five years of COCA-COLA Santa advertisements, which finally established Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture. This Santa was life-sized, jolly, and wearing the now familiar red suit. He appeared in magazines, on billboards, and shop counters, encouraging Americans to see Coke as the solution to “a thirst for all seasons.” By the 1950s, Santa was turning up everywhere as a benign source of beneficence. This commercial success has led to the North American Santa Claus being exported around the world, where he threatens to overcome the European St. Nicholas, who has retained his identity as a Christian bishop and saint.

      U“And God spake all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’ Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” - EXODUS 20:1-3

      GOD takes it seriously when people worship other gods. A recurring theme throughout the UBible is GOD’s punishment of Israel for turning away from the LORD, to serve other gods:

       U“For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them: And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.” - DEUTERONOMY 29:26-28

        Who or what are these other gods? They are, in fact, DEVILS:

  U“They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.” - DEUTERONOMY 32:17

            There is a particular manifestation of the devil, which has been almost universally admired. Now, most people do not understand that this being, whom they admire and promote, is nothing but an attempt by Satan to turn the heart’s of men away from the most high GOD - and toward another god, who is no god all, but is in fact SATAN!

          This false god, of whom I am referring, is none other than SANTA CLAUS. That is right, the jolly old elf is the devil. Allow me to prove the point. It is acknowledged that Santa Claus is in fact an elf. What is an elf? According to Noah Webster’s ‘American Dictionary of the English Language’ an “elf” is “a spirit, the nightàmar; a ghost, hag or witch...A wondering spirit; a fairy; a hobgoblin...An evil spirit; a devil.” - NOAH WEBSTER ^[5]

         Conclusion: The beloved Santa Claus is a devil!

            By what other name is Santa Claus known? He is called “St. Nick.” Roman Catholic tradition teaches that Santa Claus is actually based upon a Roman Catholic Bishop named “NICHOLAS.” Therefore, one could reasonably conclude that Nick is simply an abbreviated form of Nicholas. However, many names and terms in the occult and witchcraft have double meanings. A trip to the dictionary informs us that “Nick” is defined as an evil spirit. ^[6]

         In fact, the term “Old Nick,” in northern mythology, actually means “the evil one.” Is it just a coincidence that Santa Claus is called “Old St. Nick?” No it is not. According to Unitarian Minister REL DAVIS who, by the way, considers Christians “bigots,” and is quite proud of the pagan origins of Santa Claus, had this to say:

       “In fact, Nicholas was nothing but the ancient Roman God POSEIDON in new guise. Poseidon was the god of the sea, possessor of a magic cauldron, and capable of calming the sea with his voice. The Teutonic equivalent was called ‘HOLD NICKAR,’ king of the nixies. A “nixy” was a sea nymph, like a mermaid or water fairy. He was the Danish sea-god. The English called him ‘Old Nick’ and when the Europeans brought their ‘St. Nicholas’ to England, they instantly recognized him as their own.” - REL DAVIS
       “...Today, we think of “Old” Nick as synonymous with the devil, the Christian anti-Christ. Old Nick is a bad guy. His alter ego, “St.” Nick, however, is a good guy. Let's get back to Santa Claus, or SINTER KLAUS, the real hero of Christmas. Christian scholars claim that the Dutch “Sinter Klaus” was really Saint Nicholas, and that “Sinter” is Dutch for “saint.” Well, don't you believe it. The best evidence is that the term was originally “Klaus of the Cinders,” that is, the man from the chimney. This explains the color of his clothing (red and white, the color of fire) The Dutch really weren’t so stupid as to confuse December 5 (St. Nicholas’ day) with December 25 (Yule). SANTA CLAUS NEVER WAS ST. NICHOLAS. So who was he? Let me quote from a nineteenth century book on nordic mythology:

          ‘THOR was the god of the peasants and the common people. He was represented as an elderly man, jovial and friendly, of heavy build, with a long white beard. His element was the fire, his color red. The rumble and roar of thunder were said to be caused by the rolling of his chariot, for he alone among the gods never rode on horseback, but drove in a chariot drawn by two white goats (called ‘Cracker’ and ‘Gnasher’). He was fighting the giants of ice and snow, and thus became the Yule-god. He was said to live in the ‘Northland,’ where he had his palace among icebergs.
         ‘By our pagan forefathers, he was considered as the cheerful and friendly god, never harming the humans, but rather helping and protecting them. The fireplace in every home was especially sacred to him, and he was said to come down through the chimney into his element, the fire. Every Yule, the good god Thor would visit every home with an ‘altar’ to him (i.e., every home with a fireplace!) and bring gifts to children, who would put out their sabots (wooden shoes) the night before. Good children would receive gifts of fruit, candy and pieces of coal to burn in the fireplace’.” - REL DAVIS [Quoting H.A. Grueber] ^[7]

       There you have it, straight from a pagan minister, who is against CHRIST. Rel Davis is perfectly willing to admit - and is proud of the fact - that Santa Claus is truly a pagan god, which makes Santa Claus nothing but a devil in disguise. By the way Rel Davis, is the National Executive Secretary of the NATIONAL “KEEP CHRIST OUT OF X-MAS” COMMITTEE, which he describes in his web site as “A National Committee to Counter the Bigots Who Want To Sow Discord Among Peoples, Since 1984!”^[8]

        He is another of the deluded souls who have confused Catholicism, in all its manifestations, with true Christianity. While Davis admits he is against CHRIST and Christians, he is actually helping Christians, by revealing the true devilish origins of X-mas and Santa Claus.

        1) GOD is OMNISCIENT (all knowing): U“Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.” - PSALMS 147:5. U“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”- PROVERBS 15:3. See also, PSALMS 33:13-14.

         Santa Claus is also acclaimed to have the ability to SEE YOU when you are good or bad, “so be good for goodness sake!” The children know that they have not really been good, yet they receive gifts anyway! They conclude that Santa Claus is not very good at watching them. Later when they are told that JESUS can see them at all times, they will remember that they were told the same thing about Santa Claus, and they will know that he couldn’t really see them - otherwise they would not have received their X-mas gifts. So, maybe JESUS can’t really see them either!

         Santa Claus is able to deliver toys to every child in the world (Imagine: that would require Santa to stop at many, many homes. In fact, trillions of them!) - in just ONE night!

         Santa Claus sees you when you are awake or ASLEEP!

         Santa Claus lives FOREVER!

         Santa Claus JUDGES YOU according to whether you have been good or bad!

           Santa Clause has WHITE HAIR!

         NO ONE KNOWS the hour of Santa Claus’ arrival!

         Santa Claus lives at the north pole, and rides out of the NORTH on a FLYING sleigh, he also sits on a THRONE! The UBible tells us that Lucifer desires to be as GOD, with his THRONE in the sides of the NORTH:

         U“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” - ISAIAH 14:12-14.

         Santa Claus says: “HO, HO, HO...!”

         Santa Claus has a CARPENTER shop at the north pole, where he and his elves build toys!

         Children are told that all Christmas GIFTS come from Santa Claus. They, of course find out later, that is not true. In fact, as adults they will realize that the cards and gifts that they give and receive on Christmas are not truly gifts at all, but are rather obligations. Think about it: people trudge to the malls, looking for items, because they “have to get gifts for...” Many times what people receive on Christmas they neither need, nor want.
         When the children grow up and find out that it wasn’t really Santa, who gave them the gifts on Christmas, they will now doubt it, when they are told that GOD is the source of every good and perfect gift - thinking it is just another fairy tale!

 Santa Claus is called “Kris Kringle,” which means “CHRIST CHILD!”

         People BRING THEIR CHILDREN to Santa Claus!

 One must BELIEVE in Santa Claus. Children, however, don’t really have to believe in Santa Claus. They can just pretend to, and that will be good enough to get the gifts. When they become older, they remember that, when they played along with the Santa Clause charade, they received gifts. So, why not just play along with the JESUS “charade,” and pretend to believe in JESUS? Maybe that will be good enough for eternal life. The carnal churches today are full of people who only pretend to believe in JESUS, and who are perpetuating that syndrome in their own children,  by lying to them about Santa Claus!

         If people believe in Santa Claus they are filled with the SPIRIT of Christmas!

         Being filled with the Spirit of Christmas, people engage in DRINKING and reveling and spreading Christmas CHEER.

         If one BELIEVES in Santa Claus, one receives GIFTS. Children are told that they must be good, in order to get the gifts. The children know that, in fact, they have not been good. However, they receive gifts, nonetheless. It is AS THOUGH THEY HAVE HAD RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPUTED TO THEM! But there has been no regeneration of the heart to desire to be righteous. The lesson the children learn is that they do not really have to be good at all, they will get gifts - regardless of their conduct. A regenerated Christian does good works out of obedience and joy for what GOD has done for him. However, there is no desire to do good for the unregenerated children. The children simply covet the gifts Santa Claus has to give, and when they get the gifts that they have demanded, even though they know they have been bad, they will conclude that there are no consequences for their sins!

         Others claim that the Christmas tree was introduced in Virginia in 1842, by CHARLES MINNIGERODE, a German classics professor at the College of William and Mary. ^[10]

         In any case, trees have been used as pagan symbols and idols since ancient Babylon. The Druids considered the oak tree sacred; the Egyptians considered the palm tree sacred; and in Rome, it was the fir tree, which was decorated with red berries during the winter festival, Saturnalia. The Scandinavians considered the fir tree as sacred to their god ODIN. Odin was believed to bestow special gifts at Yuletide, to those who honored him, by approaching his sacred fir tree.

         What does GOD think of the Christmas tree?

         U“Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” - JEREMIAH 10:2-4

         The LORD commands us not to do it! If one thinks that Christmas is just fun and games, think again. The early American Christians that settled in the northeast understood the pagan origins of Christmas, and refused to celebrate the holiday. In fact, the Mayflower Pilgrims, who landed at Plymouth in December 1620, were determined to banish Christmas from the public calendar. Within a year, they had  set aside, instead, a day for giving thanks to the LORD for all their blessings - and celebrated it sporadically, throughout the following decades. But the early Christian pilgrims pointedly ignored Christmas. Puritan leader COTTON MATHER condemned the “long eating, hard drinking, lewd gaming, rude revelling” that accompanied the Christmas holiday. He noted that such actions “have more of hell, than heaven,” in them. By 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law to punish citizens “found observing, by forbearing from labor, feasting, or any other way, any days such as Christmas [Day],” under penalty of fine, imprisonment or whipping. ^[11]

         Since that time, however, Christmas has spread, and become the most popular holiday in the United States, and the world. I offer you GOD’s opinion of heathen practices, such as the celebration of Christmas, and the judgement which most certainly will befall those nations that provoke the GOD of heaven to jealousy: See JUDGES 2:10-15; 10:6-7.

         U“They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
         “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
         “Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
         “And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
         “And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
         “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
         “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
         “I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
         “They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
         “The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
         “I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:” - DEUTERONOMY 32:16-26

            Some may say: “but there is no such thing as Santa Claus, therefore, he is not any competition for JESUS.” What do you think it does to the credibility of parents, when they lie to their children for years, by telling them that Santa Claus is real? The children will eventually learn the truth. Any admonition or instruction given to the child, after they find out the truth about Santa, will be viewed through the prism of the realization that their parents have lied to them for years. The credibility of the parents has been irreparably damaged. Later, when the parents, or someone else, tries to share the gospel of JESUS CHRIST with the children, those children chosen for destruction will conclude that JESUS is just another fairy tale, like Santa Claus. Santa Claus is another weapon in Satan’s arsenal against the gospel of JESUS CHRIST:

          U“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” - 2 CORINTHIANS 4:3-4

    1] From ‘Santa Claus Comes to America’ by Caroline Singer & Cyrus Baldridge - Alfred Knopf  (1942)
    2] “New Year’s Hymn To St. Nicholas” - “Harper’s New Monthly Magazine” - St. Nicholas Center
        Collection - Albany, NY (3/1881)
    3] Detail from “First Celebration of the Festival of St. Nicholas” by The New-York Historical Society,
         Broadside by Alexander Anderson, 12/6/1810, commissioned by John Pintard, SY 1864-21,  negative
         number 28883 Used by permission.
    4] “His looks are changing, but it is still Saint Nicholas” - Period Postcard

    5] ‘American Dictionary Of The English Language (1st Ed.1828), Compiled by Noah Webster -
         Republished by the Foundation for American Christian Education, San Francisco, CA
    6] Id.
    7] ‘Myths of Northern Lands’ by H.A. Grueber - Published in 1895
    8] P.O. Box 221554, Hollywood,Florida 33022-1554 [http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/4173/santa.htm]
    9] [http://www.christianbiblestudy.org/CBS/BBOT/MAJORPRO/Jer10-1-5.html#Note%201.%20Curiosities]
  10] See Carolyn McCulley [http://www.balaams-ass.com/journal/resource/xmassusa.htm]
  11] Id.