Last year I painted a friend and veteran as Santa, LIVE, at Christmas Made in the South show in Jacksonville, FL. I finished him in gold leaf and he sold to a collector.
So, this year I decided to paint another one Live at the show in a different style. I found the perfect Santa model while visiting the Highlands, NC, just before Helene came rumbling through.
We’ve had a unique relationship – Santa and me.
Years ago, as a young homeschooling momma of boys, I decided to honor my husband’s Greek family tradition of sharing the REAL historical St. Nikolas with our boys, instead of continually weaving the customary tale. So, when our son, Jacob, was little we shared with him the history of St. Nikolas. He was an actual person back in Asia minor. He gave gifts to the poor, and in his lifetime, he was persecuted for being a Christian.
See some of his history –
Saint Nicholas of Myra (15 March 270 – 6 December 343), was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara in Anatolia (modern-day Antalya Province, Turkey) during the time of the Roman Empire. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker, His legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the folklore of Santa Claus (“Saint Nick”) through Sinterklaas.
Little is known about the historical Saint Nicholas. The earliest accounts of his life were written centuries after his death and probably contain legendary elaborations.
In one of the earliest attested and most famous incidents from his life, he is said to have rescued three girls from being forced into prostitution by dropping a sack of gold coins through the window of their house each night for three nights so their father could pay a dowry for each of them. Other early stories tell of him calming a storm at sea, saving three innocent soldiers from wrongful execution, and chopping down a tree possessed by a demon. He became Bishop of Myra. He was later cast into prison but was released after the accession of Constantine.
Today, St. Nicholas is still celebrated as a great gift-giver in several Western European and Central European countries. In medieval times, Christian nuns in Belgium and France began to deposit baskets of food and clothes anonymously at the doorsteps of the needy, which gave rise to the practice of gift-giving on Saint Nicholas Day. The custom of giving gifts on Saint Nicholas Day is popular in various parts of Christendom, with a popular tradition including children placing their shoes in the foyer for Saint Nicholas to deliver presents therein.
So, we shared this with Jacob.
Then one day he came home crying. It was near Christmas and apparently, he had gone into the cul-de-sac and told the other neighboring children that Santa had been stoned and put in jail. They were screaming at him, circling around on their big wheels, “Liar, Liar pants on fire! as the other Moms were calling me on the phone, very upset!
It was a great lesson to us about how people protectively value their family traditions, whatever they are! So, we had to help him understand everyone feels differently and let’s keep this to ourselves.
There was no easy answer to this, but we decided in our family to create an emphasis on the tradition of BEING Santa to one another. Each time they got an anonymous gift they began to realize the giver, “Santa”, was an anonymous person and we all should be trying to BE Santa to others during this season. Sometimes we would give to a needy family and the boys would participate and get to BE SANTA. And as they got older, we still enjoyed having a few anonymous Santa gifts under the tree.
The wonder of children can bring so much happiness to the season, whatever our traditions, and as we grow into adulthood, we learn how much JOY there is in the process of gift-giving.
We all have our own memories and stories around the image of Santa, so I hope my annual paintings of him will help to resonate the joy (and some funny) precious memories that you carry into this Christmas season.
I’ll be slinging some silver leaf, LIVE, at Christmas made in the South in Jacksonville, FL from Nov 29th – Dec. 1st at the Prime Osborn Convention Center.
You can check out the 2023 Santa on my site at sophiedare.com/LE-prints and my Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/@sophiedaredesigns
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