Serial Book: Saint Nicholas | The Real Santa Claus
1 — Saint Nick, Christmas & Santa
Saint Nicholas: Amazing Kid & Teen
Fourteen-year-old-teenager
M y English language student, David, and I were looking for a book we could read together over Christmas holiday.
“How about the book I just finished writing?” I suggested.
He sent me a dubious scowl. “Great! I get a choice of a romance novel or a chapter book for young kids?” he asked sarcastically. He knew I wrote both.
“Well, you would enjoy the Skeleton Key Keepers,” I insisted. “It’s for kids seven to twelve but really for anyone who likes time travel, adventure and — ”
“Mrs. Melanie,” he stopped me. “I’m fourteen.”
I held up my hands. “Okay. Anyway I wasn’t referring to either of those. Rather the book about Santa Claus that I just finished.”
Legend of Santa Claus
David laughed. “Santa Claus? Seriously?” His voice cracked on the last syllable in that endearing way boys turning into men do.
“Not Santa Claus exactly. St. Nicholas. The real man who inspired the legend of Santa Claus,” I explained.
“Real man?” That got David’s attention. He liked stories about real events and people.
I nodded.
Then, “Sorry, Mrs. Melanie. But why would I want to read a book about an old man that lived, I don’t know…a couple hundred years ago?”
“Try seventeen hundred years ago…” I corrected.
“1,700?”
“ — and not when he was an old man. When he was a kid and a teenager.”
Kid and teen St. Nick
“Teenager? I’ve never thought of Santa as being a teenager.”
“Well, what do you think? That he was born an old man with a long white beard?”
“Yeah!” he admitted. “I think I did.”
“Well, he was a really great old man. But only because he’d been a really cool kid and teenager.”
David tapped his pencil against the desk. “You know, that’s an interesting perspective. I don’t think many people have ever thought about Santa as a kid. Definitely not as a teenager.” But as he finished speaking, a troubled look crossed his face.
“What?” I prompted.
Doesn’t live at the North Pole
“Don’t laugh, Mrs. Melanie, but most kids my age might not admit it, but we’re still very angry about discovering that Santa Claus — who was supposed to live at the North Pole and deliver presents to all the good boys and girls on Christmas Eve — is just a myth.” He paused. “It was very traumatic for me when I learned he wasn’t real.”
“Don’t I know it?” I agreed and was rewarded with a double look from David. “Hey! I might be a lot older than you, but I still remember that awful day when I was told ‘the truth.’” I air drew quotes. “I was six. I hid behind a chair in the living room all day.”
David laughed. “And I went and stayed in the pool house until it was dark.”
“Well, it’s one of the reasons I started writing this book. I wanted to find out who St. Nicholas really was. And to see if he was anything like Santa Claus.”
“Was he?”
“Yep. But better.”
“Really? Okay then. What did he do when he was a teenager?” he asked in that direct way he had.
Nicholas gave us the celebration of Christmas
“Well, for one thing, he gave us the celebration of Christmas.”
“What!?”
“Yep. He’s the reason you have a school holiday now.”
“I thought Christ was?”
“Of course, Christ gave us His incarnate birth, and He’s the reason for Christmas. But our celebrating Christ’s birthday on December 25th…that was something the teen, Nicholas, most likely started.”
Through his square-rimmed glasses, David regarded me thoughtfully, looking much older than fourteen. “I guess someone had to begin it,” he finally said. “People didn’t just start celebrating it the year after Jesus was born, did they?”
“Exactly. The year after Jesus was born Joseph and Mary were hiding with him — ”
“ — in Egypt,” he finished for me. “To get away from wicked King Herod who wanted to kill the Holy Baby.”
“Well done.”
Chrystouyenna
“We studied about it in religion class — it wasn’t boring so I listened.” It really made me sad how “religion” was considered boring to most kids. But I let it pass especially since David quickly continued with, “So, you think St. Nicholas started the celebration of Christ’s birth — Chrystouyenna?” he threw in the Greek word for Christmas, which literally meant “Christ’s birth.” Greek was, after all, David’s native language. He’d been learning English as a second language since he was in nursery school. I’d been living in Athens and tutoring him for the last two years. “And you believe he started it when he was a teenager?”
“Yep. I think so.”
“Think?” he challenged and his light brown eyebrows rose skeptically above his glasses.
“Well, it was a long time ago. But all the evidence points to it.”
“The truth is, Mrs. Melanie, I’ve always wondered why St. Nicholas is so much a part of the Christmas celebration all over the world. It must mean something.”
“It does and I even point that out,” I unzipped my bag and pulled out my USB stick, “in the book.”
“Cool.” He reached for it.
I held it away from him. “We can read it only if you agree to help me revise it and make it something kids your age and everyone up to a hundred and fourteen will like,” I qualified. Even though I had already had it edited by a professional, I knew it was a condition David would say yes to. He liked revising and editing and was, in fact, very good at it. “I want it to be perfect before I publish it.”
“Deal.” He smiled, and taking the stick from me, plugged it in and clicked on the file. As expected, he scrolled quickly through the entire manuscript. “It’s got seventy chapters!” he exclaimed. “Do we have to read all of them?”
“Most are quite short. But if you get bored, or tired, we’ll stop.”
“Promise?”
“Promise,” I assured. “And we don’t have to read it all today.” I laughed. “In fact. We won’t. It’s too long.”
Why different fonts?
Satisfied, he went back to scrolling and checking it out. “There are different fonts. Why?”
“The parts using italics bold font are recreations of third century events, and the sections in normal bold are just straight narrative of the facts from the third century.”
“Interesting. So…” he sent me an impish grin, “I could just read all the text that’s in normal bold — the facts — if I wanted to? And ignore the rest, the narrative non-fiction parts, the recreations, in italics bold fonts?”
“Of course.”
“Cool. But, just to make sure before we start… It’s as close to true events about St. Nicholas’ life as possible. No myths involved?”
“No myths, “I assured. “However, in the recreations, I might introduce an event or character which, from studying his life and times, most likely occurred or existed, such as his parents adopting a little girl, or the father in the story of the Three Destitute Maidens,” I reached over and scrolled through the text to the several chapters that told about that famous event. “I believe he could have been the same who turned Nicholas’ parents in during a time of persecution. But again, this is all based on extensive research into that time.”
“That sounds okay,” he conceded.
I laughed. “Honestly, David, this book is as accurate an account about the life of a kid who lived 1,700 years ago as any book can be.”
“That is a long time ago. How’d you do it?”
“Do what”
“Discover the truth.”
Investigative journalism
“Oh, it was quite difficult until I hit on the idea to use modern-day investigative journalism techniques to examine the third-century times when St. Nicholas lived. Then, from the stories we have about him, I just had to figure out his place in that history.”
“You must have read lots of books to do that?”
“Lots,” I agreed. “But over many years.”
“Cool,” he said, and scrolling to the beginning read. “The Day Nicholas Was Born.” He glanced over at me. “It’s in italics bold so this chapter is a recreation of that event?”
“Right. It’s to help set the scene and make you feel as if,” I put on a dramatic air, “YOU… ARE… THERE.”
He smiled and clicking his cheek nodded. “Good way to open. It draws people in just like a biographical TV show that recreates events,” he declared and looking back at the computer screen, he started reading.
Key to font styles:
- Normal font: Used when David cuts into the story to ask me questions or to make revision.
- Italics bold: Recreations of third century events
- Normal bold: Straight narrative with historical information
Interesting facts
The English word “Christmas” comes from the old English, Cristes Maesse, which of course means the “Mass of Christ.” Its use was first documented in 1038. In Dutch it is Kerst-misse; in Latin Dies Natalis from which comes the lovely French word Noel. In Greek it is of course, Chrystouyenna. The last three translate as Christ’s birth rather than Christ’s Mass.
The English word “holiday” also comes from an old English word, haligdaeg, then haliday (in use by the 1200s) which by the 1500s became our familiar “holiday” and it means, “Holy Day.”
Melanie Ann here: Thank you so much for reading! I greatly appreciate your support — as I writer, it sure makes my day!
Serial Book: Saint Nicholas: Amazing Kid & Teen
