Why I, As A Man In My 40s, Still Believe In Santa Claus

Now before you simply go off of the title of this article and decide that the powers that be should condemn me to a room in an insane asylum, look me up and throw away the key, here me out for a moment.

Let’s start off with a short history lesson. Okay, go ahead and roll your eyes, but it’s important.

While many Christians and non-Christians already know this, I am sure many people do not. The figure of Santa Claus is based on a real-life person. That individual is St. Nicholas, who was bishop in the Christian church living in Turkey during the 4th century. He is the patron saint of a very diverse group of people ranging from pawn brokers to sailors to brewers and repentant thieves and, of course, children. Nicolas was well known for many qualities and practices, but among the most notable was his generous gift giving, especially to poor children.

Now, let’s take a quick look at the term Santa Claus. The term comes from the Dutch nickname "Sinter Klaas," which is a shortened form of "Sint Nikolaas," referring to Saint Nicholas. And the word “Santa” is the word saint in both Spanish and Portuguese. Sure, it is the feminine form of the word often heard in the names of cities like Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Santa Fe… but the grammar is irrelevant.

Now that we can understand the man behind the story, we can come to realize that Santa Claus is bigger than just a person, he is an idea and a concept.

For those of us more than 2 billion Christians throughout the world, we can dig deeper into the profound symbolism behind the character. We can come to realize that the concept of gifts Santa Claus is tasked with bringing to the children of the world is a representation and metaphor for the invaluable and ultimate “gift” that humanity was given on the first Christmas Day. After all, when the original legend of Santa Claus came about, it could have just as easily been set for any other day of the year. It seems only logical that there was a specific reason that it was set to coincide with Jesus Christ’s birth.

Aside from the religious viewpoint, there are many, many individuals who still celebrate Christmas in a more secular manner. Some such individuals are not even religious in any way. But, the philosophies of human behavior remain largely the same. The notion of Santa Claus is one that focuses on some of the best qualities of humanity. These include generosity and kindness among other admirable qualities. In a world that can be so hard, full of violence, greed and hate, the idea of focusing our energies and behaviors on things like these isn’t such a bad thing, now is it?

So one does not need to abide by the idea of a fat, jolly old man with a big bushy beard wearing a red suit and flying in a magic sleigh in order to believe in the spirit of Santa Claus. We do not need to attest to the physical reality of flying reindeer and a workshop full of toy-building elves. In fact, much of these stories only came about within the last couple of hundred years or so and the imagery commonly used today came from a marketing campaign by Coca-Cola in the early 20th century!

The point is, any human being can join in on the spirit of generosity and kindness, aiming for things like “Peace on earth and goodwill to men" echoed in both literature and song over the centuries. And to believe in these things, is to believe in Santa Claus. It’s really just that simple.