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St. Nicholas Day
"Nicholas, I beg of you,
Drop something into my shoe,
Something sweet or something sweeter.
Thank you, Saint and thank you, Peter!
Put your long red mantle on,
St. Nicholas, good and holy man,
Drive your sleigh from Amsterdam
And find us quickly if you can."
~ Traditional Dutch
Today is the feast day of Saint Nicholas, known across cultures as Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, Santa Claus, and many other names. All trace their folkloric roots to a 4th-century Christian bishop from Myra in Asia Minor.
Known for his quiet generosity, Saint Nicholas became the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, and students—a remarkably wide circle of protection. His legendary practice of secret gift-giving shaped the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas, which in turn inspired our modern Santa Claus.
This tartan uses red for the traditional garb of Santa Claus; green for the evergreen holly and mistletoe associated with Christmas traditions; and includes three bands of yellow to represent the three bags of gold from one of the most cherished legends of St. Nicholas. In this story, a destitute merchant faced the heartbreak of being unable to provide dowries for his three daughters. Learning of their plight, Nicholas quietly tossed three small bags of gold through the family’s window on successive nights—anonymously preserving the daughters’ futures and giving rise to centuries of charitable tales. The two bands of white in the tartan symbolize purity and the snow of the North Pole.
In traditional portrayals, Sinterklaas wears a long red cape or chasuble over a white bishop’s alb, sometimes with a red stole. He dons a red mitre, wears a ruby ring, and carries a gold-colored crosier with its distinctive curled top. A large red book is always at hand, said to contain the record of each child’s behavior over the past year!
Across much of Europe, the holiday season begins with St. Nicholas Day on December 6, when children traditionally receive small treats left in their shoes. Exchanging gingerbread or lebkuchen is also a customary delight of the day. These traditions set a warm tone for the weeks ahead, while Christmas Day remains the larger celebration focused on the Nativity, family gatherings, and the exchange of more substantial gifts.
And although our modern concept of Santa is associated with reindeer and wintry northern scenes by the 1820s, he didn’t originally reside at the North Pole. That familiar detail was the invention of Victorian cartoonist Thomas Nast, whose December 1866 illustration in Harper’s Weekly firmly established Santa’s polar home in popular imagination. Ho Ho Ho! ❤️ 💛 💚 🎅 🎁 🎁 🎁
For St. Nicholas Day, December 6th, we have the tartan "Claus of the North Pole."
Saint Nicholas (15 March 270 – 6 December 343) also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor (modern-day Demre, Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as "Nikolaos the Wonderworker."
St. Nicholas had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, a practice now celebrated on his feast day. It is St. Nicholas who became the model for Santa Claus, from the Dutch Sinterklaas, a series of elisions and corruptions of the transliteration of "Saint Nikolaos".
St. Nicholas' most famous exploit involves a poor man with three daughters who could not afford a proper dowry for them. The father feared they would remain unmarried and in absence of any other possible employment, would descend into deep disgrace. Hearing of the girls' plight, Nicholas desired to aid them, but being too modest to help the family in public (and to save them the humiliation of accepting charity), he went to the house under the cover of night and threw three purses (one for each daughter) filled with gold coins through the window opening into the house.
This tartan was designed for the Clan Claus Society, a benevolent service organization, dedicated to bringing Christmas cheer in the true and sincere tradition of the Santa Claus Legend.
Click the picture of St. Nicholas for more on the folklore and interesting legends associated with St. Nicholas.