SANTA CLAUS : The Great Pretender Pt 5

Cary G Dean.

Big Brother research archive

Let us investigate the traditional Santa story even closer.

Dr. Terry Watkins, Th.D.

Dial-the-Truth Ministries

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The following references are provided to demonstrate the "devil"

who accompanies St. Nicholas is a well documented fact.

In every forerunner of Santa this dark and diabolic character appears.

It is the Christkind who brings the presents, accompanied by one of its many devilish companions, Knecht Rupprecht, Pelznickle, Ru-Klas.

(Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, p. 70)

In many areas of Germany, Hans Trapp is the demon who accompanies Christkind on its gift-giving round.

(Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, p. 75)

Another Christmas demon from lower Austria, Krampus or Grampus, accompanies St. Nicholas on December 6.

(Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, p. 94)

Like Santa, Sinterklaas and the Dark Helper were also supposed to have the peculiar habit of entering homes through the chimney.

(Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 102)

In Sarajevo in Bosnia, Saint Nickolas appears with gifts for the children in spite of the war and shelling.

He is assisted by a small black devil who scares the children.

(Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 102)

Ruprecht here plays the part of The bogeyman, a black, hairy, horned, cannibalistic, stick-carrying nightmare.

His role and character are of unmitigated evil, the ultimate horror that could befall children who had been remiss in learning their prayers and doing their lessons.

He was hell on earth.

(Siefker, Phyllis. Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1997, p. 155)

In Holland, (Sinterklaas), aka (Santa Claus), aka (Satan Lucus), wore a red robe while riding a white horse and carried a bag of gifts to fill the children's stockings.

A sinister assistant called Black Pete proceeded Sinterklaas in the Holland tradition to seek out the naughty boys and girls who would not receive gifts.

("History of Santa Claus," )

The Christian figure of Saint Nicholas replaced or incorporated various pagan gift-giving figures such as the Roman Befana and the Germanic Berchta and Knecht Ruprecht.

He was depicted wearing a bishop's robes and was said to be accompanied at times by Black Peter, an elf whose job was to whip the naughty children.

("Santa Claus" Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99)

Christmas historian Miles Clement relates that no "satisfactory account has yet been given" to the origins of these demons and devils that appear with St. Nicholas.

It can hardly be said that any satisfactory account has yet been given of the origins of this personage, or of his relation to St. Nicholas, Pelzmarte, and monstrous creatures like the Klapperbock.

(Miles, Clement A. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition Christian and Pagan. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1912, p. 232)

Maybe a satisfactory account has been given.

Let us keep reading.

Previously, we established the peculiar fact that today's Santa Claus and St. Nicholas are not the same.

They never have been.

Santa Claus is dressed in a long shaggy beard, furs, short, burly and obese.

The legends of St. Nicholas portrayed a thin, tall, neatly dressed man in religious apparel.

You could not possibly find two different characters.

If Nicholas, the ascetic bishop of fourth-century Asia Manor, could see The Santa Claus of today, he would not know who he was.

(Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, pp. 138,141)

So the legends of Saint Nicholas afford but a slight clue to the origin of Santa Klaus,-alike, indeed, in name but so unlike in all other respects.

(Walsh, William S. The Story of Santa Klaus. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1970, p. 54)

The startling fact is, Santa Claus is not the Bishop St. Nicholas.

But his Dark Helper!!!!?

(DA, DA, DAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!)

In certain German children’s games, the Saint Nicholas figure itself is the Dark Helper, a devil who wants to punish children, but is stopped from doing so by Christ.

(Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 105)

Black Pete, the 'grandfather' of our modern Santa Claus. Known in Holland as Zwarte Piet, this eighteenth-century German version, is-like his ancient shamanic ancestor-still horned, fur-clad, scary, and less than kind to children.

Although portrayed as the slave helper of Saint Nicholas, the two are, in many villages, blended into one character.

This figure often has the name Nikolass or Klaus, but has the swarthy appearance of the Dark Helper.

(Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, p. 98)

Artist Thomas Nast is rightfully credited for conceiving the image of our modern day Santa, but Nast's model for Santa was not the Bishop St. Nicholas but his dark companion, the evil Pelznickle.

The Christmas demon Knecht Rupprecht first appeared in a play in 1668 and was condemned by the Roman Catholic as being a devil in 1680.

To the Pennsylvania Dutch, he is known as Belsnickel.

Other names for the same character are Pelznickle, "Furry Nicholas," and Ru-Klas, "Rough Nicholas."

From these names, it is easy to see that he is looked upon as not merely a companion to St. Nicholas, but almost another version of him.

(Del Re, Gerard and Patricia. The Christmas Almanack. New York: Random House, 2004, pp. 93,94)

In Thomas Nast: His Period and His Pictures, biographer Albert Bigelow Paine, documents that Nast's Santa was Pelznickle.

But on Christmas Eve, to Protestant and Catholic alike, came the German Santa Claus, Pelze-Nicol, leading a child dressed as the Christkind, and distributing toys and cakes, or switches, according as the parents made report.

It was this Pelze-Nicol - a fat, fur-clad, bearded old fellow, at whose hands he doubtless received many benefits - that the boy in later years was to present to us as his conception of the true Santa Claus - a pictorial type which shall lone endure.

(Paine, Albert Bigelow. Thomas Nast: His Period and His Pictures. New York: Chelsea House, 1980, p. 6)

Santa historian and author, Tony van Renterghem also documents Nast's Santa Claus was not Saint Nicholas.

But the evil.
"Black Pete-the Devil."

Thomas Nast was assigned to draw this Santa Claus, but having no idea what he looked like, drew him as the fur-clad, small, troll-like figure he had known in Bavaria when he was a child.

This figure was quite unlike the tall Dutch Sinterklaas, who was traditionally depicted as a Catholic bishop.

Who he drew was Saint Nicholas' dark helper.

"Black Pete".

(A slang name for the devil in medieval Dutch).

(Renterghem, Tony van. When Santa Was a Shaman. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1995, pp. 95-96)

Santa researcher, Phyllis Siefker, echoes Renterghem's conclusion:

It seems obvious, therefore, that Santa Claus can be neither the alter ego of Saint Nicholas nor the brainchild of Washington Irving.

If we peek behind the imposing Saint Nicholas, we see, glowering in the shadows, the saint's reprobate companion.

"Black Pete".

He, like Santa, has a coat of hair, a disheveled beard, a bag, and ashes on his face.

In fact, it is this creature, rather than Irving's creation or an Asian saint, who fathered Santa Claus.

(Siefker, Phyllis. Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1997, p. 15)

By the way, St. Nicholas did not come down the chimney.

It was his fur-clad, dark companion that came down the chimney.

One of the reasons his sidekick was called the "Dark One" or "Black Peter" was because he was normally covered in soot and ashes from his chimney travels.

The "Dark Companion" also carried the bag, distributed the goodies, and punished the bad boys and girls.

Children [in Holland] are told that Black Peter enters the house through the chimney, which also explained his black face and hands.

He would leave a bundle of sticks, or a small bag with salt in the shoe, instead of candy when the child had been bad.

("Saint Nicholas," Wikipedia Encyclopedia. )

About the Author:

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Dr. Terry Watkins, Th.D.

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