But prior to the 1860s, old St. Nick had a very different look. St. Nicholas was traditionally depicted as skinny and bald in traditional red bishop's robes -- a far cry from the morbidly obese chap that impossibly squeezes his way down our chimneys every Christmas Eve.
Nearly a century before that, early American writer Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle) was one of the first to balloon Santa's waistline: In an 1809 book, he switched skinny St. Nicholas and his episcopal robes for a fat elf in traditional Dutch garb. And yes, he looked terrifying.
He's overweight and sedentary, has a belly that jiggles and spends way too much time sitting with children on his lap. But Santa Claus wasn't always obese; America made him that way.
Turns out the 4th-century bishop, from whom Santa Claus is derived, was a short swarthy man with dark brown eyes and a broken nose. A 3D digital face of Saint Nicholas was first created in 2006 for a BBC documentary when the Vatican granted scientists access to X-rays and measurements taken from the saint's remains.
Santa's actual height is 6 feet 6 inches, and his weight is 250 lbs, according to the Christmas experts at Yes Santa is Real. Although they disagree on his height and weight, both authorities on St.
We all know Santa Claus has a jolly old belly, and that's likely because each Christmas Eve, according to an estimation by An Idea, he consumes just under 40 billion calories.
In the absence of exact figures, we found estimates that Santa weighs anywhere from 220 lbs to 1,380 lbs and is somewhere between 4′ 3″ and 6′ 7″ tall, which gives him a BMI between 24.8 (just below overweight) and 373, making him a potential candidate for liposuction…and bariatric surgery.
Exactly how old is Santa? According to the blog Email Santa, Santa Claus is 1,751 years old as of 2022. In fact, the origins of Santa Claus can be traced all the way back to a monk named Saint Nicholas, who was born between 260 and 280 A.D. in a village called Patara, which is part of modern-day Turkey.
The real Saint Nicholas is likely to have had olive skin, dark brown eyes and a wide chin and brow. He stood at 1.68 metres (5ft 6in) and had a broken nose. However, according to the researchers, he did sport white hair and a beard - as was the fashion for 4th century religious leaders.
The 19th century Santa was often shown wearing outfits of different colors: purple, green and blue in addition to red. This slowly faded out so that by the beginning of the 20th century the standard image of Santa Claus was a man in a red suit trimmed with white.
This St Nicholas was tall and thin, which perfectly suited his character as a strict Catholic saint who only presented gifts to children who had been well-behaved and dutifully said their prayers. A figure like this, in the mediaeval Christian context, could never be fat.
The character originated with St. Nicholas, who lived in Turkey during the fourth century. Nicholas was a wealthy young bishop who started giving away all his gold after his parents died. “Back in those days, extra weight was a sign of wealth and affluence,” Kliner said.
Nast composed new Santa images every Christmas while the war continued, and returned to the theme sporadically afterward. Santa was now a man rather than an elf and was shown smoking a long clay pipe and wearing the red suit with white trim that we most associate with him today.
Santa Claus existed many years before Coca-Cola started to use him for its Christmas advertising campaign.
If you think, judging by that white beard and hair, Kris Kringle might be around 70 or 80, the truth is he's far, far older. According to History.com, the monk who over time would evolve into Santa Claus was born in what is now modern-day Turkey in 280 A.D., making him a whopping 1,741 years old!
A well-fed belly is part of Santa's iconic look. But you might imagine he gains some weight after eating so many Christmas Eve cookies and drinking so many glasses of milk! If Santa eats 71.2 billion calories on Christmas Eve, he would gain about 20.4 million pounds.
Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, said depictions of Santa Claus as a white man came about mainly because he was a European import, a blend of the Dutch Sinterklaas and British folklore character Father Christmas, with elements of Saint Nicholas, a 4th-century Greek bishop in ...
It was thought that the clever marketing people at Coca-Cola thought that by linking Santa to Coke by putting him in a red suit the same shade as their brand colour, would promote the company better.
Five Things You Never Knew About Santa Claus and Coca‑Cola
In fact, many people are surprised to learn that prior to 1931, Santa was depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to a spooky-looking elf.
Claus is much more tight-lipped about her age than Santa is. The last time she talked about it, she mentioned she stopped counting when she turned 170. Similar to Santa, the elves believe Mrs. Claus is roughly the same age, around 1,700 years old.
When is Santa's birthday? SantaClaus.com states that Santa's birthday is on March 15. Mark it on your calendar for next year!
Santa is an idea
The truth is, he's not a person at all – he's an idea. Get them to think of all those presents Santa gave them over the years. Explain that you actually bought those yourself and that Santa Claus is the idea of giving for the sake of giving, without thanks or acknowledgement.
What's more, Icelandic children don't just get presents from Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. On the 13 nights leading up to Christmas, Icelandic homes are visited by the 13 Yule Lads ("Jólasveinar") – creatures from festive Nordic folklore. Starting on 12 December, they descend one by one from the mountains.
Santa's Sleigh is 6' (1.83 m) tall with an overall length of 28'8” (8.75 m). Santa's Sleigh is Santa's most important piece of equipment.
Santa eats 1 cookie per household.
There is an average of 1.93 children per household in the U.S. Dividing the number of total children (48.2 million) by 1.93 estimates that Santa visits nearly 25 million households. If Santa decides to eat one cookie at each house, then he eats about 25 million cookies in one night.