Colin couldn’t wait to play Santa. He used to grow a long white beard to go with his long white hair. Each week he’d get up at church and beg for donations from the congregation. He clapped his hands with delight at the prospect at distributing these presents as gifts to kids at Christmastime.

Julian is Colin’s friend. He likes Colin. But he hates Santa. Talk to Julian about Santa and as quick as a flash he’ll tell you that ‘Santa’ is an actually an anagram of ‘Satan’. Julian says the fat guy in the red and white suit with fake smile is nothing but a corporate-sponsored point man dressed designed in 1931 for Coca-Cola to sponsor their product at the start of our annual Yuletide consumerfest.

Colin and Julian represent two very different views of Santa.Colin is closer to the Dutch tradition, which celebrates Sinterklaas. Julian is closer to the German tradition that, at one point, banned Santa Claus.

To the Dutch, Santa was a mythical figure who hailed from Spain with a Moorish helper called Black Peter. He had the amazing capacity for knowing, without saying, whether children had been bad or good throughout the year. And he rewarded good little children generously with sweets that mysteriously appeared in their shoes in midwinter.

To the German reformers, Santa was a silly fiction who had become a serious problem, because he had begun to displace Christ at Christmas, the very festival held in his honour. The reformers tried to deal with the problem by banning Santa and focusing on the Christkindlein or the Christchild.

As it turned out, it wasn’t long before Christkindlein evolved into Kristkingle, or Kriss Kringle, who, as time went by, came to look more and more like Santa Claus. In spite of the prohibition Santa Claus would not be denied his day of fun.

‘Santa Claus’ is a corruption of ‘Saint Nicholas’. In the fourth century the saint was the bishop of Myra, a city in Lycia, in south-western Turkey. Apparently, Myra was an important port of call for the many ships plying their trade round the Mediterranean Sea.

During a famine, Nicholas is said to have stolen grain from the cargo of a passing ship that had stopped at Myra on its way from Egypt to Byzantium. He distributed the food freely to all the hungry citizens of the city. Thus saving the town from starvation.

On another occasion, Nicholas is said to have heard about the plight of a poor family in Myra who had three daughters but no money for their dowry. In those days a woman without a dowry was unlikely to be able to arrange a suitable marriage, and without the support of a family was likely to end up on the streets. So Nicholas decided to provide them with their dowries for himself. According to the story, wanting to avoid publicity, under the cover of darkness, Nicholas secretly slipped some gold into the girls’ stockings that had been washed in the evening and were hanging out overnight to dry. Thus saving the sisters from prostitution.

The date of his birth is unknown, and the date of his death is still uncertain. But Nicholas is thought to have died sometime on December 6, either in 345 or 352.

When the story of what Nicholas had done became known, the bishop was named a saint; and the legend of Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus, the gift-giving saint, was born.

The story of Nicholas tells us the true message of Christmas.

Dave Andrews