The First Christmas Present: The True Story of Santa Claus

Gather around, kids. How old are you? Wow, you’re getting big, aren’t you? Do you think you’re old enough to hear the real story of Santa Claus? Well, alright then. Does anyone here know Santa Claus’s real name?

That’s right, it’s Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas of Myra – he used to be the Archbishop of Constantinople, a long, long time ago. Sixteen-hundred years. He was the guy that made sure all the priests were doing their jobs, and rumour had it that he knew everybody in his city by their first name. Can you imagine knowing everybody in Calgary? Pretty hard to remember everybody at your school, isn’t it? But he was such a good bishop that he knew everybody.

So back then, people weren’t as rich as we are today. They had to work really hard, and getting married cost a lot of money. And in Constantinople there was a family with three daughters who were very poor. And even though the mom and the dad did everything they could, the daughters were growing up, and they couldn’t afford a dowry – that’s the money you use to get married.

The mom and dad were very worried. But then – on Christmas day, when their oldest daughter was sixteen – they woke up to find a bag of gold on the floor of the living room! It was just enough for her to get married to the man she loved, and they all celebrated.

Then – two years later, again on Christmas day, when the second daughter was sixteen – they awoke to find another bag of gold, so that she could get married too!

Now by this point the father figured something was up. So two years later, when his youngest daughter was sixteen, he decided to stay up, eating cookies and milk, to find out where the gold was coming from. And sure enough, just before midnight on Christmas Eve, another bag of gold flew in from the window. He jumped up and rushed outside, to see who threw the bag of gold – and who did he see out there?

It was Saint Nicholas walking down the street!

“Archbishop!” he said, “It’s been you who’s been giving us the money so that our daughters could get married!” And do you know what the Archbishop said?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he said. “I’m just going for a walk! It must have been God who gave you that money!”

That night, when Archbishop Nicholas went to sleep, Jesus visited him in a dream. And he said to the Archbishop, “Nicholas, I saw what you did, giving that family gold on my birthday so their daughters could get married, and now I have a request for you.”

“What can I do for you, Lord?” asked the Archbishop.

And Jesus said, “When you’re done being Archbishop I want you to move up to the North Pole, where you’ll have lots of helpers, a magical sleigh, and an eight-legged reindeer (that’s one of the secrets most people don’t know about Santa Claus, by the way – he doesn’t have eight reindeer, he has one reindeer with eight legs!), and from now on, I want you to celebrate my birthday by giving presents to all the kids all over the world.”

And that’s the story of the first Christmas present.

Now, do you kids want to hear the story of how Archbishop Nicholas became Saint Nicholas? Because that’s a different story entirely.

Well – a long, long time ago – we didn’t have a Bible. Remember, when Jesus was here doing miracles and talking to crowds, we didn’t have cameras or computers, we just had people telling us the stories of what happened. Sort of like I’m telling you this story right now. Can anybody tell me what the first four gospels of the New Testament are? That’s right, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These were four of the apostles – but at first their stories were just being spoken, it took a while for them to be written down.

Archbishop Nicholas was born about three hundred years after Jesus came to Earth. And at that point, there were lots and lots of stories going around. Some of them were true, but some of them were made up, so people were confused. To get rid of the confusion, Constantine, the Emperor of Rome, called all the smartest people in the world to a council at a place called Nicaea – including Saint Nicholas – to figure out which stories were true, and which stories were made up, so that Christians would know the real story about Jesus. This is where the Nicaean Creed comes from.

Now at this Council was a very stupid man named Arius. Have you kids ever met somebody on the playground who loves to argue, and never admits they’re wrong? That was Arius. He didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and he kept arguing with all the priests and bishops there. Do you know what the word for lying about Jesus is? The word is heresy.

So there was Arius, going heresy this, heresy that, and Saint Nicholas was very calm and wise, explaining how he was wrong again and again, but Arius just wouldn’t listen. He was too proud to admit he was wrong. So eventually – when Saint Nicholas realized that words wouldn’t work – do you know what he did?

BOP! One punch to the nose, and Arius fell to the ground, and stopped shouting his heresy! And now that he was finally quiet, all the priests and bishops could get back to putting together what we call the New Testament today. And for throwing such a good punch, Archbishop Nicholas became Saint Nicholas

So – I want all you kids to promise me – none of you will do any heresy this year, will you?