Mythological stories are not just fictional. The characters and symbols are taken from the material world and built up into a story. They are not pure fantasy but dramatizations of an ordered inner world in which we are profoundly embedded, though for a long time we are unaware of it. Myth is the first conscious link between the ordinary mind and that inner world. We need not concern ourselves so much with history as with the inner meaning of the Christmas story for in the latter we can discover the most profound truth about the universe and man.
Christmas is a word full of profound meaning. It strikes at the heart of memory and evokes images full of feeling.

Through these we translate the Christmas Santa Claus story, giving it individual coloring and bias, but in so doing we unconsciously make use, each in his own way, of symbols which are in effect entrances into the archetypal world, which is the creative mind.

St Nicholas was born in Patara, Turkey in the 3rd century when Nicholas was very young his parents died. Although they left him an inheritance, which he chose to use to help poor families. By the 4th century he became a Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor. Some countries today his festival is celebrated on December 6th. It was after Nicholas was released from prison for his Christian belief, he died on December 6th, 343 AD. He was known in his lifetime for his kindness and generosity towards the poor. Christmas celebrations were not held in the first three centuries of the Christian Church; there are records in Rome going back to 350 AD; the earliest English records date from 592 AD and in Germany where Christmas is now so popular, the festival dates from 813 AD. and in others on Christmas Eve, December 24th. In Holland children put their wooden shoes in the fireplace; in England, a stocking was adequate. He is the true symbol of goodwill, humility of spirit.

Nicholas as Santa Claus came to America when immigrants began to move into the New World, American, they brought along various traditions. One such group, the Dutch, brought with them the idea of St. Nicholas. Sinterklass was the Dutch word for St. Nicholas. American children recited the word Sinterklass so quickly it began to sound more like Santa Claus. The mispronunciation stuck.

Two writers in America literature helped to make Santa Claus an American Tradition. Washington Irving was the first. The second writer to bring the magic of Santa Claus was Clement Moore, a Hebrew scholar and professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, as well as Theology who was born in 1779 and died in 1863. In 1823 Moore published anonymously the well-known poem, giving people everywhere a picture of St. Nicholas traveling through the sky on a sledge drawn by eight reindeer A Visit from St. Nicholas or The Night Before Christmas by Clement claimed authorship in 1837. Thomas Nast, an early American illustrator used Moore’s poem to create an image of what he believed Santa Claus to look like. Red suit and a kindly old man living at the North Pole. By 1931 another artist Haddon Sundblom began painting new images of Santa Claus. He gave Santa very human like qualities and helped make him more real for children all over America. One question remains to answer. How did we come to associate Santa Claus with December 25th? During the 19th century, writers in New York felt they wanted to change the face of Christmas Day. The first note of Santa Claus arriving on December 25th occurred in 1821 with a children’s book entitled, The Children’s friend. The book introduced many aspects of Santa Claus, which he brought toys on Christmas Eve rather than December 6. This was one of many writings that changed the Christmas celebrations forever.

However, not all of us know the true story of Santa Claus origin. It is always amazing and heartwarming to see a child’s delight and wonderment when the presents under the tree read "from Santa". Yes, his spirit lives in our hearts even only a figment in a child’s imagination. After all, the spirit of St. Nicholas is generosity, charity and kindness.

Ultimately, no doubt the Christmas experience becomes so much a part of the daily life of the true seeker that he knows and realizes for himself that what we call Christmas is the thing which is taking place all the time and everywhere throughout the universe in which we live. It is no longer a human and personal experience but is one which lies at the very heart of Creation itself.
"I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight".