The History of Santa Claus
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- This video discusses the history of Santa Claus or St. Nick from the early fourth century Nicholas of Myra to modern Santa Claus.
History of Christmas Presents: • The History of Christm...
The Story of Silent Night: • The Story of Silent Night
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Further reading on some aspects of Christmas and Santa (affiliate link):
Bruce David Forbes, "Christmas a Candid History" (amzn.to/3RtZSZy)
My books (affiliate links):
"How We Got Our Bible" (Zondervan, 2018): amzn.to/2MtmSYY
"Story of Creeds and Confessions" (Baker Academic, 2019): amzn.to/3OVDyGQ
#santa #history
No. The best version of Robin Hood is Mel Brooks classic, Robin Hood Men In Tights. No, you can't change my mind on that fact either. Just accept you're wrong and move on.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and yours, btw. 😊
Agreed, there's no discussion warranted unless men wear tights.
Agreed
"Because unlike some OTHER Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent..."
tight TIGHT tights
😡😡😡😡 You Forgot Finland where Santas Town is in Rovanniemi.
Oh boy 530am time for a highly detailed and interesting lecture about the Church
Drawing a straight line from cocaine (in Coca-Cola) to modern Santa is, chef’s kiss 👨🍳 💋
Merry Christmas!
Sorry bro, cultural practices aeent deeply problematic.
Your history lessons are pure gold. Amazing stuff you’ve produced over the years.
You are a wonderful man for doing this. Please keep it up.
I don’t think Ryan realizes what he has here. People love his style and presentation. It is like lightning in a bottle for RUclips.
i live near a large dutch community in canada and the black students at my school kept trying to cancel the dutch kids for dressing like black peter 🤣
Great video thank you! One minor thing, though, my understanding is that the link between Christmas and Saturnalia is likely overstated (with maybe some cross-pollination re: specific traditions) and that 25th December was identified due to an older tradition that calculated the date of someone's death based on the date of their conception. Can you speak to this at all?
At the very start of the video he says “there’s almost no connection between the practice of Christmas and Saturnalia”…or are you saying there’s more connection than what he’s representing (which he says scholars would not agree with)? Regarding your question on the nativity, sounds like a topic for a separate video.
Thank you, Ryan. Once again your videos prove to be a great joy and blessing.
Grace to you in the celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
8:40 Not only does Sinterklaas bring a switch for naughty kids (according to family legend one of my uncles actually did this to his kids once), the really bad ones are put in Piet's sack and taken away. This was always a source of hilarity for children if Sint and Piet showed up somewhere and asked if a particular kid had been nice and they would be met with cries of "In the bag! In the bag!"
That's both hilarious and kinda terrifying. LOL!
Hey brother, I’m sure you’ve been asked before, but could you do a video or lecture series on Brother Lawrence and his impact?
I just love the idea of Santa decking Arius at Nicea.
Those Arians are hard-headed.
I can only imagine how obnoxious and arrogant Arius was. He probably deserved it🖐️
Was “the night before Christmas” originally meant to refer to December 5th? I don’t think it’s mentioned when the transition to the holiday being on the 25th first happened
Great question. Depends on country initially. So Germany and a few others they make that move quickly with the Christ Child thing. In New York they are celebrating St Nicholas’ day but when they invent the new modern Santa Claus stories they make it Christmas Eve.
I just had this chat with my 12 year old daughter.
Our Santa doesnt have a naughty and nice list...everyone is on the naughty list. Santa gives because Christ gave to him. His giving is his response to the Gospel.
You're right to wrap up, Santa is very malleable.
Sounds like Santa is reformed lol
A fellow I know has an ugly Christmas sweater with both Jesus and Saint Nicholas. A friend sacrilegiously said to me: Look at the sweater with two fictional characters. I responded: wrong and wrong! As a new Catholic (converted from Protestantism) it continues to amaze me how effectively the reformers have scrubbed away not just the saints but also the true meanings. Yet our culture celebrates St Patrick’s Day, Saint Valentines Day, all Hallows Eve and yes Christmas with no remembrance of why we do these things.
Manufactured "controversy", as usual. If you can dress up like some version of "Santa', then you can dress up as "Black Pete." (Or however it's spelled.) You'd think it would be more "problematic" to eliminate him from the story, entirely. Y'know, like they did to Aunt Jemima. People need to grow up.
Anyway, this was great fun! If you are ever bored, I'd love to hear the Russian strand of the story.
Thanks for this Ryan, very historical and informative. Could you please do one on the origins of Easter? The historically inaccurate narrative that it was a pagan holiday has become has become mainstream, even among Christians.
Would love if you could pick up where you left off with the church history series. Tracing the modern church through the Jesus culture movement and the emergent church.
That sounds fun. Great suggestion
Yes please!
@@RyanReevesM Yes please!
@@RyanReevesM
Glad you are back. I first saw your videos in 2016. Have you considered doing a series on American based Christianity such as JW, LDS and or 7 day Adventism?
👍
Your content is a joy to watch and absorb. A shining light of well researched knowledge amongst all the cacophony of bells and whistles that choke the web.
All the best for the festive season and for 2024. I eagerly await more.
Im not quite finished with the video yet, but are you going to mention how Gandalf is Father Christmas??? 100% BELIEVE!
Three different Church Fathers calculated December 25 as Christ's birthday, and they did it from Scripture. It has to do with the timing of Zechariah's service as priest in Luke chapter 1.
There isn't any evidence that it had anything to do with Saturnalia.
Dear Ryan , relative, relatable research. Refreshing in recognizing reality from rumoured ramblings. ( Hmmmm....) wRapped with red ribbons of rationality.
Wrapped*
Really regret ruining radically rhetorical rants. 😢
"Modern Turkey" in stead of "The Byzantine Empire" sounds a bit odd in this story. The oldest reference to "Black Pete" in the Netherlands is found in the works of a school teacher from around 1850. In other European countries, Saint Nicholas was then still travelling with a devil (Krampus) as companion.
Best version of Robin Hood is the 1938 version featuring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland and the best version of A Christmas Carol is the Alastair Sim film 1951. Merry Christmas to one and all!
What about Thomas Nast, J.C. Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell, all of whom pretty much created the look of Santa prior to Haddon Sundblom? History doesn't happen at stops in time--it is ongoing even when historians aren't noticing. I'm sure it is hard to explore all of Santa in 26 minutes. But there is a lot here that was left out.
Dude really? How many times u gonna bail on us for 2 months + long breaks
I live in the former Soviet Union where they traditionally have Father Winter, or Ded Moroz who comes on New Year's Day. But due to Americanization you're now seeing more and more of the Coke-a-cola Santa replace Ded Moroz.
I did know most of these little facts about Saint Nick already, but another one, which hasnt been mentioned is that the 8 reindeers and Santa's sleigh is based on odins 8 legged horse pulling his sleigh through the sky on Yuletide?? Also wassailing was the original pagan version of carol singing
Like this song, (there are several more verses)? Sometimes people sing caroling instead of wassailing.
"Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wand'ring
So fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God send you a Happy New Year."
You forgot Santa Claus in Finland where Santatown is.😢
Holidays in English language actually originates from 'Holy Days,' thus 'Happy holidays,' is not so far off from the gospel.
Thomas Nast also had an important role in the image of Santa Claus as a jolly fat man given how widely his cartoons were published. Many late 19th century newspapers also contributed to the lore around Santa over time like the fact that he lived at the North Pole or had a wife.
Totally true. Also the letters from kids to Santa or asking if he’s real were published in papers. Lot of cool stuff didn’t make it in the video!
Qui Bono Merchant?
Where are you man???
My kid knows there is no Santa. We don't play that lying junk.
I love how Christian traditions pop up out of no where in history not taking after pagen or any other beliefs as if just inspired by God. A supposed being infinitely timeless that just poped on the scene 2000yrs ago and out of no where started a religion with its own completely unique customs and traditions.....
Wait until you hear about all the prophecy Jesus fulfilled
I’d be VERY interested analyzing the representation of Santa Claus in advertisements. Well done , Ryan 👏🏽
Hello Ryan. ? Will you be posting new videos ? Miss your content, thx
@@endoftheagereality // I'll be back soon 😊
OH OH! I may have learned something. I'm scared...Hold Me!
🙂
Excellent! Well balanced and factual! Thank you!
In my own research I came across a fella by the name of Thomas Nast who produced the first image of Santa clause in 1863 and went on in 1866 to produce “The Works of Santa Clause” which contained much of the lore you mentioned and what we now associate with Santa. Another thing I found was that the song “Santa Clause is coming to town” produced in the same time period as the coke ads was one of that factors that led to a fully formed American Christmas tradition
The exclusion of the work of the cartoonist Thomas Nast weakens this history. It makes me question the veracity of the remaining information.
Good video, will watch it again, the many changing faces of Santa 🎅, ... where will we be in 100 years time?
The people demand more Dr. Reeves videos!
Mr Beet recomended this channel.
Superb! Bless you brother. Thank you.
Merry Christmas. Love your videos!
I took your class at Kairos
I remember going over this topic . It sure did help further my knowledge. Hope things are going well blessings 🙏🏻
Another idea Dr. Reeves for a video is about The Shroud of Turin . Probably you can give us more Historical Context of this particular piece of history.
Thanks much Mr. Reeves... Merry Christmas, I hope you and yours are well.
I would love to see a video from you on the history of Krampus and other holiday foils.
Thank you for another awesome video. You are incredible! Sending you many blessings and best wishes for a very merry Christmas and happy new year. Peace from the blind guy!
😂 FALSE 😂 ... THIS IS A RUSSIAN FAIRYTALE... "FROST FATHER" that goes away on conquest in summer and comes home with the spoils of war "CHRISTMAS PRESENTS" 😢 STOLEN GOODS 😂... WHAT A BEAUTIFUL STORY ABOUT JESUS 😂😂😂
This is more than just the history of Santa Claus. How do you attract people to a celebration that is already known for its "folklore", such as Christmas ? By embellishing it with all sorts of "bells and whistles" and "words", such as "happy holidays", "Merry Christmas". For example, what does Santa Claus and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer have to do with Jesus so-called birth on December 25th that the Catholic church created ?
Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005 brings to our attention that the "familiar image of Santa Claus is a North American invention of the 19th century, (and) it has ancient European roots and continues to influence the celebration of Christmas throughout the world. The popular image of Santa Claus developed from literary descriptions by (American) novelist Washington Irving (1783-1859) and poet Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) and the fanciful drawings of illustrator Thomas Nast (1840-1902)."
The modern concept of Christmas, with Santa Claus being the hefty fellow, was embellished by Coca-Cola in 1931 and Rudolph, the ninth reindeer, with a red and shiny nose, was invented in 1939 by an advertising writer for the Montgomery Ward Company.
And of the origin of Christmas, an encyclopedia states: "Historians are unsure exactly when Christians first began celebrating the Nativity of Christ. However, most scholars believe that Christmas originated in the 4th century as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Before the introduction of Christmas, each year beginning on December 17 Romans honored Saturn, the ancient god of agriculture, in a festival called Saturnalia."
"This festival lasted for seven days and included the winter solstice, which usually occurred around December 25 on the ancient Julian calendar. During Saturnalia the Romans feasted, postponed all business and warfare, exchanged gifts, and temporarily freed their slaves. Many Romans also celebrated the lengthening of daylight following the winter solstice by participating in rituals to glorify Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light" on December 25.(Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005)
So, Christmas is NOT based on the Bible, but rather an absorption of pagan Rome's celebrations of Saturnalia (that ran from Dec 17-24 and whereby all business and warfare was postponed, gifts were exchanged, and slaves were temporarily freed) and the birthday of the Persian god of light Mithra on December 25, called Natalis Solis Invicti or "birthday of the invincible sun", and that was altered to "birthday of the invincible Son", by the Catholic church.(Note: the word "catholic" means "all-embracing, all-inclusive", so that the Catholic church embraced Rome's pagan festivals of Saturnalia and Mithra, Christianizing them and renaming them as "Christmas")
How many who call themselves "Christian" have carefully examined Jesus birth ? For example, how many have looked in detail at Luke 2, that shows shepherds were "living out of doors and keeping watch in the night over their flocks" (Luke 2:8), showing the weather to be mild and comfortable and not during the cold and rainy weather of December ?(see Ezra 10:9 and Jer 36:22)
How many who call themselves "Christian" have come to recognize that Jesus death was far more important than his birth (see Ecc 7:1 that says that the day of death is "better" than the day of birth), establishing that true Christians were to observe the day of his death that corresponded to Nisan 14 of the Jewish calendar as Jesus commanded ?(Ex 12:6, 14; 13:3, 4; Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Cor 11:23-26)
How many who profess to be Christian are diligent in applying what the apostle Paul wrote at 2 Corinthians 6:14, 17, 18: "For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have ? Or what sharing does light (of Bible truth) have with darkness (of falsehoods and lies, such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Mother's day, Father's Day, Memorial day, etc) ?..........Therefore, get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah (God's name, see Isa 12:2, KJV), ‘and QUIT touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in. And I will become a father to you, and you will become sons and daughters to me,’ says Jehovah, the Almighty.” ?
Excellent research! Thank you for your hard work!
Working Class Maid...180 Degrees Metric...Business Studies...Merchants Way
Another great video that I didn't know I needed until I heard it. Your catalog of work is one that I look forward to showing my kids as they get older. Thank you for all your effort and dedication to the truth, God bless.
@Ryan Reeves, this was good man. And thanks for posting sources !!
You restarted your channel, don’t leave us hanging Dr Reeves
Just needed a moment. On my way back
@@RyanReevesM I learned so much years ago from your channel. I would get home from work, start cooking and just listen to your lectures. I learned so much. If I had more $$ right now I'd donate. Keep up the great work.
Learn better from audio book Jeff Guinn - The Autobiography Of Santa Claus. From about 400AD as a monk then a bishop. But he that is too tedious and he would rather send give to the less fortunate. Fascinating how famous history people. I highly recommend listening or a copy of the book if you can find it. To me I was disabled before 2000 and I had to give up reading. I have audio books from cassettes, to text file and epub then Text to speech software then online and download audio books like this current book. I lost count I tears from the wonderful story about the history and how he (they) become what is now. Please! I hope you can love this as much I love this book.
Okay, okay. I used to hold you in high regard as a Historian, then you hinted that the Kevin "What's an English accent" Costner version of Robin Hood was the best movie version of the story. Even the 91 Patrick Bergan Robin Hood (with Uma Thurman as Maid Marian) was better than Costner's! You have now lost all credibility to me. Disney's anthropomorphic FOX was a better rendition of the story!!
The only reason I could think that you didn't say that Errol Flynn was the definitive Robin Hood was because he's simply so many orders of magnitude better than any other that your discussion on the "best" was only over who might come in second place because that's where the competition is focused.
When reading A Christmas Carol you can see that for most of the people in the story (from Fezziwig to Cratchet to Scrooge's nephew Fred) that Christmas was a time to party and that one of the key "duties" of the man of the house was making the Christmas Punch. And the recipes for Christmas Punch all seem like they're trying to outdo one another at creating a concoction of alcohols designed to get you drunk as fast as possible. There's no mention in all of the book of Jesus, and only a couple passing references to Christmas Day church services. Yet his book was one of the sparks that reignited interest in Christmas in England.
Great video. Although your thumbnail of Santa Claus looks strangely reminiscent of Daniel Wallace.
HO HO HOMOOUSIOS
Whao 😲
Do you have a video on the early churches' understanding of spiritual gifts? If not that would be amazing. A series of Christian canonization would be great too. Thank you 🙇
Hey Mr. Reeves. I heard that German Lutherans invented the Christmas Tree by combining the Paradise Tree with the Christmas Pyramid, but now I'm hearing that Catholics invented it when they adopted the evergreen after the story of St. Boniface and started hanging wafers representing the eucharist from it.
Do you know which one came first?
The problem with Western scholars saying we do not know the date when Jesus was born is that they do not study the Eastern Fathers. There is a homily by Saint John Chrysostom where he justifies the date of December 25th as being just and biblical. There is also a record that shows that Cyril of Jerusalem asked Poe Julius I to look up the archives and tell him the exact date of Jesus's birth. Julius responded with December 25th.
Book of Revelation. Returning Christ came from thr sky, and had white hair. When He returned, He was bringing justice against the Anti-Christs who are "the enemies of God and all mankind." He stomped on the ieuds until His garments were saturated with their blood. Deep red attire.
The Christmas tree is based on the tree of life in the garden. Started from a Christmas play in France.
There is no connection between Saturnalia and the original Christmas i.e. the mass celebrating the birth of Christ (except for the date) but aspects of the Saturnalian festival continued to be practiced. I agree that Christmas didn't evolve out of Saturnalia or some Norse tradition but in the popular celebrations of Christian holidays, pre-Christian (what came to be known as "folk") traditions did indeed survive which happens in all religions since there is always something that came before.
If anything, it seems the reverse is true whereby overt aspects of Saturnalia has been _added_ to the Christmas celebration and this somewhat recently.
Waiting for the history of Christmas itself 🎄✝️🙏🎅🏻
Just one aspect that you left out: the contributions to theSanta Claus mythology by political cartoonist Thomas Nast in the mid 19th century. It was his drawings that gradually changed the image from the elf like guy to the tall standing jolly old man who lived in the North Pole.
Could you please do a video about the origins and rise of Evangelical eschatology? Particularly premillennial dispensationalism? Things in the vein of rapture theology or Revelations/Daniel end times prophecy.
DONNER AND BLITZEN WERE THOR/ODIN''S 2 GOATS THAT PULLED HIM THROUGH THE SKY
Small correction: Arius did not deny the divinity of Christ. He claimed that God the father and Jesus were not of the same substance because Jesus was “begotten.”
OR, we could just keep the moedim/appointed times established by Yehovah that point to Messiah (Leviticus 23).
,, father Christmas must be analogy of st Joseph, in traditional Christmas performances fir children. It had to be dressed in red as were dressed the rich Jews for festive in ancient times. But the person who "climbed" through the chimneys came much later than St Nicolas, who never was dressed in red or even in crossed robe . The most famous st . Nicolas was dressed as a Franciscan monk at the first time . There are similar images on the most ancient icons. But at time when reformation had began to persecute catholic priests , there also was a bishop by name Nicolas that recommended to build rooms for confession at home with a way to escape if it was dangerous, and sometimes this way was lead trough the chimney
Fascinating video. I enjoyed that it gave this cozy feeling as well how apropos. Indeed it seems while having the kernel of European winter season traditions, Santa Clause is a product of modernity and forming new traditions for a relatively nascent culture in America. Right down to the iconic imagery coming from commercialization.
I've enjoyed your work for years now going back to to heresies, Jan Huss, Luther and much more. Great to see you back.
As is expected, I wish we’d bring back the purely Catholic version - hard-partying & all.
so no more RR? No more videos? Sad. And it all did not come to a head :(….
I never thought you'd speak blasphemy. Costner is the worst Robin Hood.
I've seen several conflicting accounts of the origin of O Holy Night. Can you set us straight?
Some of it sounds mythological.
Greetings! I like all of your videos and just wanted you to know. Is there anything you want me to pray for you? God Bless you!
Been watching you since I was 17 (24 now) and so glad you're back with new videos!!
When met with the santa/satan dislexyia take on jumbled words for a hidden meaning - I would reply Santa means saint in a foriegen language doesn't ?
Thanks Dr. Ryan. Any books to cite for further reading? Asking for a friend…
New videos please! Maybe the violent rift between Christians over traditions and beliefs. Christians are still fighting each other and it’s sad
I love that you go for quality over quantity with your channel but I think we're due for a new video. Some more content on religious art like your Rembrandt video would be great. Would also love to hear you get into the relationship between some classical composers and religion as well.
@@therevolvingmonk Soon
Now I know why Santa left the warm Mediterranean world for the frigid North Pole.
Q. Where does Santa Claus come from?
A. The North Pole.
Easy
The jews must convert to Jesus Christ who is the Messiah and God
Dr./Mr. Reeves. Are you still at Gordon Cromwell?
If any one can get of hold of Dr brant pitre christmas explanation ... do please explain
During your research did you come across anything relating Santa to Finland?
rearrange the letters and what does the name spell?! repent GODs KINGDOM is near
Thanks. Any other childhood dreams you'd like to destroy? 😂
Thank you Ryan something to think about.
4:25 why not just say prostitution? That is how the story goes if I'm not mistaken.
Is Wencelas the same as Wenceslaus? I may be an armchair historian but I know better than to assume.
So thats y babys always cry when see santa they remember the switch from previousr life
"Deeply problematic..." With all due respect, this comment about Black Pete seems to miss the mark. Because some people in the 19th century Mississippi Delta used to dress up and imitate Black Americans, Dutch people can't imitate a medieval Moor out of genuine honor? They have to have sensitivities to historical contexts completely alien to their own? This seems like making claims based on the emotional intuition of certain people steeped in certain discourses, rather than well-reasoned thought.
Any way, your channel is great and I appreciate your thoughts, in general!
I agree. In fact, the so-called "Black Face" was a make-up worn _by_ Black entertainers i.e. Minstrels. The absurd amount of virtue signaling by Whites whenever a non-Black blacken their face is pathetic and ridiculous. No one throws a fit over the the Wayans' brothers movie _White Girls_ and many, many other things...
Western Europe is falling victim to American weakness.
Thank you! Consistently excellent and easy to follow along.
Ryan, great research once again. It's a pleasure to share your videos on social media.
Hello, are you planning to do easter history like these last couple?