Occupation: Saint, former Bishop of Myra

Legal Status: Citizen of Roman-Occupied Turkey in the Fourth Century AD

Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of Santa Claus except as a legendary character from folklore.

Other Aliases: Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, Saint Nick, Sinter Klaas, Pere Noel, et al.

Place of Birth: Patara, Lycia (now part of modern Turkey)

Marital Status: possibly Single

Known Relatives: Epiphanus (father, deceased), Johana (mother, deceased), Nicholas (uncle, deceased)

Group Affiliations: The Council of Legends

Base of Operations: North Pole, Greenland, formerly Myra, Lycia

First Appearance: (as the Ghost of Christmas Present) "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, (as Santa Claus) "The Night Before Christmas" by Clement Moore

History: Nicholas was the only son of wealthy Christian parents of Greek descent named Epiphanus and Johana in Patara, Lycia in the Fourth Century AD. After his parents died from an epidemic, he was taken in by his uncle who was Bishop of Patara. He was raised to be very religious at the monastery which his uncle had founded and as an adult became the Bishop of Myra in what is now modern Turkey.

Nicholas used his family wealth to spread acts of kindness and good will. He was particularly fond of children, nursing three back to life from a deathly illness. He rescued three sailors from a storm off the coast and helped the three unfortunate daughters of a poor nobleman. The three daughters wanted to marry three brothers of nobility, but their father did not have the money for their dowry. A recluse by nature, Nicholas anonymously dropped a bag of gold one night at a time for each daughter, but by the third night, the father rushed to discover who his mysterious benefactor was. Nicholas begged the father to conceal his identity, but one of the daughters learned the secret and spread the story. Thereafter, whenever someone received an unexpected gift, they thanked Nicholas. 

In 325 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine heard of the extreme generosity of Nicholas and asked to meet him, possibly at the Council of Nicaea in modern Iznik which had convened to discern the nature of Jesus Christ. (Some sources claim Nicholas was abducted by Emperor Diocletian who had only ruled the Roman Empire from 284 to 305 AD.) Since Constantine was one of the first of the Roman Emperors to embrace Christianity, it is likely the encounter was under amicable terms.

The circumstances of Nicholas's death are unrevealed, but it is known the Holy Roman Emperor venerated him as a saint. He was buried in Myra, but in 1071, during the invasion of the Seljuk Turks to the area, St. Nicholas appeared in a vision to the three sailors to preserve them from the Muslim conquest. Over the objections of the Orthodox monks, the sailors had St. Nicholas's earthly remains reinterred from their burial church in Myra to their native port in Bari, Apulia (now part of Italy). Reputedly, some of the bones of St. Nicholas were taken by pilgrims to a church in Nikolausburg, Germany and to the church of St. Nicholas in Venice, but this is unconfirmed. In the Tenth Century, Emperor Vladimir of Russia hearing of the great deeds of St. Nicholas declared him the patron saint of Russia.  

As a spirit among the other saints of Earth, St. Nicholas continued doing good deeds among people. In Scandinavia, he replaced the worship of the old Viking and Saxon deity Odin, who had shown great kindness to the wife of a Viking sailor. According to accounts, a fisherman named Sigurd (not to be confused with the Saxon hero) had been caught in a fierce storm while returning home for the Midwinter's Feast. Sigurd's wife, Sia, prayed to Odin to give her husband safe passage home. Odin had his son, Thor, delay destruction of an asteroid levied on Asgard, the home of the Scandinavian gods, until it was in a place Sigurd could see it. Once it was destroyed, Sigurd could use the light from it to find his way home. Meanwhile, Odin had secretly left Sia's family fine food, wine and linens. The story of Odin that night riding in his sleigh pulled by flying reindeer were later applied to the legend of St. Nicholas by the Vikings slowly embracing Christianity. St. Nicholas may have desired to continue that aspect added to his identity by his believers, or Odin might have granted St. Nicholas his own flying reindeer and elves to assist him as he withdrew seeking worshippers on Earth, but this is uncertain.

Over the years, St. Nicholas assimilated into the modern identity of Santa Claus. His feast day on December 6 and the birth of Jesus Christ were moved to the night of the Winter Solstice (December 25) by Early Christians seeking to hide their traditions from the earlier pagan Roman Empire which was slow to the gradual accepting of Christianity after the rule of Emperor Constantine. Furthermore, in 1519, the Protestant movement from the Catholic Church chose not to believe in saints. Believers of St. Nicholas held on to his memory by creating new identities for him as Father Christmas and Pere Noel. In the Netherlands, bad pronunciation of St. Nicholas's name led to him being called "Sinta Claes" or "Sinter Klass." The most recent and most popular version of his name was Santa Claus, the name most people know him by today.

In 1820, author Washington Irving collected and placed into print all the stories of Santa Claus into print for the first time. Two years later, author Clement Moore heard of Santa Claus visiting a family in physical form and published it as a poem as "The Night Before Christmas," but he allowed it to be dismissed as a work of fiction. Santa Claus was also among two other figures, a fairy and the Angel of Death, who visited a London money lender and convinced him of the true story of Christmas. Charles Dickens also committed the story into a novel as "A Christmas Carol." Despite a remote and secretive character trying to avoid attention, Santa Claus allowed artist Thomas Nast create the iconic image of Santa Claus in 1882 as a jolly fat "elf" as per the description of Clement Moore. He also chose the North Pole for its endless wintry landscape as the base of operations for Santa Claus. This same image was elaborated on and simplified by Haddon Sundblom as an advertising icon in the Thirties.

Despite his existence as a spirit, Santa Claus was also able to take on a physical corporeal state to move among normal people at times. Whether this was caused by the power of those who believed in him is unconfirmed. During the 1940s, he was spending parts of the year living at a convalescent home in Great Neck, New York under the name of Kris Kringle. When he generously and awkwardly chose to fill in for a Santa Claus impersonator for Macy's department store in Manhattan, his innocent comments of being the one true Santa Claus were humorously accepted by a few, but it also led to a mental hearing where he was starting to question the state of generosity and good cheer in modern society. During the resulting court proceedings, Kris learned that his supporters far out-numbered his skeptics and renewed his spirit.

Under unknown circumstances, Santa decided to retreat from attaining physical form and instead allowing his spirit continue through men of honorable and charitable spirit. One of these men was an unemployed man named Henry Corwin from Brooklyn who after getting to play Santa Claus one year chose to do it every year. Following the stories by Irving and Moore, Corwin possibly created the physical base of a workshop station called "North Pole" in the northernmost part of Greenland along with the elves and reindeer from Odin. In the Nineties, salesman Scott Calvin replaced Corwin's unidentified successor. Both men believed they were the real Santa Claus in a string of men under the name. "North Pole," meanwhile, increased in size and scope from a small village to a large town connected to the outside world by a phantom train known as the Polar Express which like Santa Claus existed in the boundaries of the physical and spirit domains. Calvin has recently been accepted as the heir of St. Nicholas by the Council of Legends, a loose group of former pagan deities experiencing renewed modern recognition, such as the goddess Gaea as Mother Nature and the Olympian god Hypnos as the Sandman. Jack Frost, a former Saxon god, was another extended member of the council who often masqueraded as a hobo on the Polar Express.

In recent years, Santa Claus or at least one of his mortal avatars has had encounters with known costumed crime-fighters or "superheroes" around Manhattan. He encountered the Invaders during World War Two and the X-Men in recent years along with Spiderman and the She-Hulk. Today, he is considered a controversial figure embodying both the spirit of generosity and a symbol of commercialism abused by large conglomerates at Christmas.

Height: 6' 0"
Weight: 250 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: White, Red in his youth

Strength Level: In his physical form, Santa Claus possesses extraordinary but not superhuman strength for a man of his size, height and build who excels in moderate physical exercises; he can lift (press) around 800 pounds under optimal conditions.

Known Superhuman Powers: Santa Claus possesses several powers which appear mystical in nature but are based in his nature as a true spirit. Like all spirits, he exists in an immaterial state, but instead of being reliant on ectoplasm like earthbound ghosts, his existence is sustained by the beliefs of his worshippers and supporters in the Christian faith. Typically invisible and immaterial, he can appear anywhere on Earth at while and take on a physical form resembling that of his earthly form at will. Because of this ability, he can enter a home through any opening and bring with him a small number of objects with him. He can use this ability to seemingly pull objects out of nowhere, seemingly materializing objects from boxes, bags or crates. Because of this ability, he is not hindered by having to deliver a massive load of deliveries in one shipment. In his true form, he is invulnerable to harm, and in his physical form, he can still partake in eat and drink. He can ingest vast amounts of sugar and liquor without harm or dire after effects.

Santa Claus is practically immortal. In his physical form, he has the physical parameters of a much younger man unrestricted by age or weight. He can carry incredible weights and maneuver over extreme heights with ease. He has incredible equilibrium and dexterity on rooftops and parapets. Even if he should somehow fall, he is immune to injury.

Santa Claus can also extend the majority of his mystical skills into chosen human agents, giving them the majority of his powers to materialize solid objects from a medium like a cloth sack and to slip in and out of sealed locations. Scott Calvin was even able to predict or guess the innermost desires of others. However, both he and Henry Corwin were still subject to mortal frailties and could still experience injuries and even death. Upon dying, their Santa abilities were passed on to a new mortal candidate chosen by St. Nicholas. The full limits of this phenomenon are unrevealed.

Abilities: Santa Claus is a gifted inventor and designer, usually in the art of making toys. He radiates a cheerful charismatic charisma in her personality enabling him to charm any person.

Transportation/Pets: Santa Claus rides an mystical flying sleigh pulled by a number of reindeer either enchanted by Odin or descended from Sleipner, his own flying steed. In his tale, "The Night Before Christmas," Clement Moore identified them as Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen with another, Rudolph, named in later modern folklore. It should be noted that Santa has many more reindeer with identical characteristics who as yet remain unnamed.

Base of Operations: Santa Claus presides in a hidden town called North Pole in the Hohaho Valley of Northern Greenland. Hidden from the surface by a sheet of ice, it has also been called Santa Claus Village and holds the toy factories, deer stables and homes and stores for a population of elves. It is reached by Santa's sleigh or by the Polar Express passing through the immaterial realm. 

Comments: This bio includes Santa Claus in modern media and in Marvel Comics; his appearances in DC Comics are unrevealed.

Television and motion picture references include characters and incidents from Miracle On 34th Street (1947), Twilight Zone: Night of the Meek (1960), The Santa Clause (1994/2006/2008) and The Polar Express (2008). 

Last updated: 09/30/11