This document discusses the origins of Santa Claus and argues that he is based on a real 4th century Christian bishop named Nicholas. It claims that teaching children about the historical Nicholas is better than misleading them about Santa Claus. The document also discusses the spread of Islam in former Christian regions and argues that areas like Syria and Turkey would benefit from returning to Christianity.

1. There Really Is A Santa Claus!
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There Really
Is A
Santa Claus!
Ingo Breuer
Many children grow up with the belief in Santa Claus who lives on the Northpole, rides his reindeer
sleigh and brings presents on Christmas by climbing through the chimney. In other countries there
are the traditions of “Father Christmas”, “Sinterklaas”, “Saint Nick” or Nicholas. Then as those
children grow up they are coldheartedly told “There is no Santa Claus!” And for many children this is
a moment of disillusionment from which they will not recover for he rest of their lives. They were led
to believe in this man of goodness and generosity and later they are deliberately being disappointed
and left with the impression that in reality only vice and greed exists while true goodness is just a
“fairytale”. I believe it is both stupid and immoral to lead children to believe something and then
later tell them it’s not true. We as Christians want to teach children the truth. We are like John: it is
our greatest joy to see children walk in truth.
If it is my effort and goal to teach children about the truth of God, the Savior Jesus Christ and the
need for personal salvation, then it is counter-productive when I let them believe in Santa Claus and
then later at age 10 tell them that wasn’t true. Then I am guilty of deliberately misleading and
confusing a child. After all, that child might logically think: “If all this story about Santa is not true,
then all this talk about Jesus might not be true either.” So once again, our society is guilty of the most
destructive social patterns of behavior. Instead of avoiding such mistakes, people by the millions
jump for it and go right ahead and make such mistakes and end up miserable because they have not
followed the Bible.
But upon closer research I found a blessing. There really is a Santa Claus and there is an urgent
message in his life-story that cries for global attention. When you take the modernday legends of
Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, Weihnachtsmann or Saint Nick and trace them back to their historic origin,
then you will find a real person. You can teach your child about that REAL PERSON who is behind
Santa Claus. All the modern stories lead us back to a man named Nicholas. He was a Christian man
and later became a church leader (bishop) at a time when Christians faced enormous persecution by
the pagan Roman state. He lived in Minor Asia which today is Turkey. He was born in 270 AD and
died in 343 AD. Does you child know about Nicholas – the man behind the modern Santa Claus. Is
that being taught in your child’s school?
Nicholas was a man of integrity. He was known for helping the poor, defending the true doctrine of
Christianity against heresies, stepping up to be a bishop at a time of persecution when others would
rather hide from serving in a Christian office. There are stories of him helping sailors in a storm on a

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ship. The idea of “Santa Claus” bringing gifts or the various traditions of secret gift giving might have
originated from Nicholas. There was a poor man who could not afford dowries for his 3 daughters.
Nicholas must have known about the situation and he had a way of helping them to prevent the
daughters from ending up in sex trafficking and prostitution. Nicholas decided to help secretly. He
passed by their house by night and threw 3 bags of money through a window to help them have their
dowry for marriage. This reminds us that Jesus taught us to do our giving in secret and not publicly
tout our horn about how much money we give to charity. Let not your left hand know what your
right hand is doing. Jesus teaches the three secret disciplines of giving, prayer and fasting. Matthew
6:1-18. That is a basic principle of how we ought to live as believers in Jesus Christ.
While much of today’s Santa Claus traditions are mere inventions and embellishments, there is a
core of truth behind all that. The story of Nicholas reminds me of this Proverb:
“The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.” Proverbs 20:7.
The real Nicholas lived 1700 years ago but his legacy lasts till today. Every child can find a good
example in the life story of Nicholas. Instead of misleading children to worship and idolize sinful,
godless rock stars who are not Christians, they should know about Nicholas. And most of all, they
need to know Jesus Christ. It is wrong for anybody to idolize people. Remember when Apostle Peter
came to Cornelius, then Cornelius fell down and worshiped the man. But Peter said “Quit! I am just a
man.” People worship is wrong. Children should never ever under no circumstances be misled to
idolize celebrities, rock stars or sports stars. IF YOU ARE SAVE YOU HAVE NO CELEBRITY BUT JESUS
CHRIST. If you have followed the world and idolized people or things, then this would be a good time
to course-correct and repent to God.
Nicholas was born in a town called Patara and served as bishop of Myra. The city of Myra was
near today’s city of Turkey. Turkey is a Muslim country today. The disciples of Jesus were first called
Christians in Antioch which is in the country of Syria. Also a Muslim country in a mess of war right
now. The apostle Paul went about preaching the gospel and establishing churches all over Asia
Minor, Syria, Cyprus … Did you notice that all the major places in the Bible today have been overrun
by the doctrine of the false prophet of Islam? Just think of it: In the book of Nehemia, Ezra and Esther
we read about the king of Persia helping the Jews – God’s chosen people. You know that Persia now
is called Iran and Iran is Muslim and those people today hate the Jews and want them off the map.
About 2500 years ago their kings used to help the Jews in getting temple worship started and having
the walls of Jerusalem rebuilt. Iranian donations made it possible! The Iran of today is definitely out-
of-sync with their national history. They used the bless God’s people instead of cursing them. So you
see how those former Christian or pro-Jewish countries have all been overrun with Islam. The historic
lesson is this: Apostasy is followed by terrorism. Decadents are overrun by barbarians. If you commit
apostasy against God, you will be overrun by tyrants who follow false gods. The former Christian
countries that fell into apostasy later on have been overrun by Islam. The question is: Is Europe and
America next? Will they learn from history or will they repeat history? People are extremely ignorant
today. Churchgoers are more addicted to iphone and hellevision shows than with actual truth from
the Bible. The kind of preacher that will preach the truth will get run off and accused of being divisive
and hateful. My God says that if you love good you must hate evil. If you cannot hate, then you never
really loved anything. The biblical definition of “hate” is to love less. It does not necessarily imply
wrath or guile. Syria is a mess now with war. Turkey is heading the same way. We cannot bring
peace to Syria by sending in bombs and drones and troops. Consider the nonsense: Why should our
troops risk their lives in an undeclared war on foreign soil, while Syrian refugees systematically
overrun Europe maybe soon the US as so-called “refugees”. Why does Barack Obama arm radical
Muslim rebels in Syria while at the same time he wants to disarm American citizens? How crazy can a

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person be when he trusts known criminals with weapons but does not trust law-abiding citizens with
means to defend themselves? Obamunism makes no sense. Believing in Santa might be naive, but
believing in Obama is outright dangerous, destructive, hare-brained and utter idiocy.
If we want peace in Syria, then the people in that region of the world should also consider Nicholas.
They should consider turning back to the faith their forefathers a long time ago forsook. Instead of
Islam overrunning Europe and America, we must see Christian inroads into Syria and faith in Christ
welling up all over the Islamic world. Those countries where once the apostles set up churches need
to turn back to that apostolic faith. What a blessing if once on the road to Damascus Saul saw a light
and turned to Christ. Great is the need for many a Muslim in that area to talk the same road. The
people of Syria and Turkey, where Nicholas is from, and where the early church worked, should just
open up to the love and forgiveness of God and turn form their idols to the living God.