When you conjure up a mental image of Santa Claus, what do you see? I’d imagine yours resembles mine: a long-bearded, red-robed man flying through the night sky, on a sled towed by a team of magical reindeer. With plenty of devoted elven helpers running about, busily preparing for the annual Christmas Eve deliveries.
This cultural tradition is so embedded in us that the winter and Saint Nick are almost inseparable. The North Pole legend and all the symbolism surrounding it has become such a foundational principle of our seasonal reality that we’ve almost ceased questioning its origins.
Well, in the spirit of sacred curiosity we did a little digging through the archaeological record to find out exactly where and when the “Red One” stepped into our collective reality. This seemingly innocent exercise quickly blew up into a journey across cultures, continents, and millennia. I hope you enjoy the ride!
A quick disclaimer that the findings below are just a theory derived from an abundance of historical documentation we collected. If you believe Santa came from somewhere else, that is your God-given right and we respect that.
Ok, there are so many places to begin. A thousand doorways, you could say… wink, wink. (It’ll make sense later.) I guess the most obvious starting point is an exploration of Santa’s outfit.
The Hat
We’ve all worn the fluffy, floppy conical Christmas cap. Santa’s hat is an icon all by itself, bringing back images of childhood hopes and dreams, holiday parties of yesteryear, maybe even painful ghosts of Christmas past. The look and feel of this thing is so etched into our brain that it feels preordained, like it’s always been here waiting for us. But where does it come from?
The ancient Persian religion of Mithraism. More specifically, the sun god Mithra himself.
(I know - weird, right? Did I just ruin Christmas? I hope not, because we’re just getting warmed up.)
Ok, who is Mithra and how did his fashionable headgear end up on Santa’s head…
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Stay curious,