Knowing about the deep history of Santa helps to put in perspective our conflicted, even scary, childhood Christmas memories.
In the classic holiday film, A Christmas Story, there’s a scene where a Macy’s Santa sits atop a seemingly massive edifice in his faux ice throne. A long line of excited kids and parents snakes off into the distance. The young hero, Ralphie, must wait with his brother for a chance to talk to the Big Guy.
Before Ralphie gets his chance, we see some other kids getting a turn on Santa’s lap. When they face Santa, instead of asking for a present, they just scream. Grumpy elves then pick them up and place them on a slide, sending them off in tears. When Ralphie finally gets his turn, he’s too thunderstruck to say anything. He has dreamt of asking Santa for a Red Ryder BB gun. Now, at the moment of truth, he freezes. Santa recommends a football, and he dumbly agrees. Just after the elf puts him on the slide, Ralphie comes to his senses. He struggles back up and asks Santa for the BB gun. Santa responds, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.” Then Santa places a foot on Ralphie’s face and shoves him down the slide with a “Ho! Ho! Ho!”
The scene is hilarious. Many an adult watching surely recalls the desperation and pathos of childhood Christmas longings. We remember hunting for that elusive, must-have item under the tree, hand-delivered by the Big Guy from the North Pole. Santa, Ralphie believes, is his greatest hope for a Christmas gift miracle.
While our dominant cultural image of Santa is the jolly, happy gift-giver, the Macy’s scene in A Christmas Story tells us something else. Kriss Kringle can be quite scary.
History of Santa
Let’s go back a bit. Just who is Santa? If you look at paintings of Saint Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop of Myra, he’s definitely not that. No, Santa is a massive, fur-covered, red-suited, sooty man with an enormous beard. He’s from a far-off, mysterious land in the North (but Myra is in Turkey). He’s got magic reindeer and an army of elf workers. He has magic powers. For instance, he knows if you’ve been naughty, and he can descend and ascend chimneys with ease. To see him close up in a mall sends many children into panic mode.
The deep history of Santa, perhaps unsurprisingly, is filled with horror elements. As Phyllis Siefker reports in her book Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men, the Santa that we know and love has less to do with the original Saint Nicholas than with pre-Christian “Wild Man” mythos. Explains Siefker, “Santa’s forefather was the very un-saintlike Furry Nicholas, a major player in the winter festivals.” This figure was an archetype of fertility and chaos, of the untamed, evoking magical forest dwellers covered in fur.
In American history, Santa often came with frightful sidekicks who delivered pain, when needed. There was Black Pete, who Siefker describes as “the hairy, chained, horned, blackened, devilish monster who was Nicholas’s servant.” Black Pete threatened bad kids with a rod. In 19th-century Pennsylvania, German immigrants and their children celebrated Christmas with Pelznichol, a Santa figure who, “whip in hand, went from house to house with cookies and chestnuts, rewarding well-behaved children and frightening and whipping those who had been naughty.” Pelznichol wore animal skins and toted bells, a whip, and a bag. In some versions, he’d throw bad kids in the bag and whisk them off.
The Wild Man of European tradition was hairy and huge. He commanded the elements (remember the classic poem “A Visit From Saint Nicholas,” where we learn about reindeer literally named Thunder and Lightning—Donder and Blitzen?); he traveled at midnight, known colloquially as the Fairy Hour; and he was associated with magical woodland creatures like goblins and elves. He made appearances in parades and festivals, sometimes with his wife, to illustrate the wildness and wonder of nature and fertility.
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Horror Films Today
Today, Santa is still sufficiently scary to summon forth numerous horror films. For instance, in 1984 we had Silent Night, Deadly Night. This was followed by a great many sequels, including such gems as Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! and Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker. This year, we have Christmas Bloody Christmas (tagline: "You Better Not Cry"). In theaters currently is Violent Night. Starring Stranger Things’ David Harbour; this film’s Santa is not evil, but he’s quite wild and murderous. The backstory suggests that he was once a Viking. This is not a movie for young kids.