The Santa Claus Connection

Part of the Saint Nicholas Page honoring Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker

[St. Nicholas]

Santa Claus, San Niklaus, Sinter Klaas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas

The story of Santa Claus is inextricable from Saint Nicholas of Myra. The former derives from the latter, with heavy doses of local cultural influence, particularly from the Protestant countries of Northern Europe, where veneration of saints was abolished. The elfish quality was added in America.

The links here concern primarily the Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus connection. Left to others is the promotion of Santa without the saint. For additional accounts dealing more with Saint Nicholas and less with Santa, see the Saint Nicholas links.

The links on this page take you to other sites on the Internet. No endorsement of those sites is implied. Items found there may well be copyrighted.

Especially Dutch

The people of Holland, er, the Netherlands, uh, the Dutch, greatly enjoy the celebration of the arrival of Sinterklaas. Some additional links may be found in the miscellaneous Saint Nicholas page under cooking.


Return to the St. Nicholas Page.

Please send any comments on this page to stephenparsons@yahoo.com

Last modified November 14, 2007.

Copyright © 1999-2004,2006-2007 Stephen Parsons