Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas, Spanning 50,000 Years

by Phyllis Siefker

Much of the modern-day vision of Santa Claus is owed to the Clement Moore poem "The Night Before Christmas." His description of Saint Nicholas personified the "jolly old elf" known to millions of children throughout the world. However, far from being the offshoot of Saint Nicholas of Turkey, Santa Claus is the last of a long line of what scholars call "Wild Men" who were worshipped in ancient European fertility rites and came to America through Pennsylvania's Germans. This pagan creature is described from prehistoric times through his various forms--Robin Hood, The Fool, Harlequin, Satan and Robin Goodfellow--into today's carnival and Christmas scenes. In this thoroughly researched work, the origins of Santa Claus are found to stretch back over 50,000 years, jolting the foundation of Christian myths about the jolly old elf.

Genres: History, Christmas, Nonfiction, Mythology, Religion, Holiday, Spirituality

227 pages, Paperback

First published November 27, 1996

Reviews

[Mankey · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a lot to like in this book, but the history and the scholarship had serious flaws. First of all, no criticism of Siefker as a writer, her prose is enjoyable, and never bogs down, an accomplishment when writing a book dealing with 30,000 years of alleged history. There are also some fabulous photographs and pictures sprinkled throughout the book. As a big fan of Christmas Traditions Siefker surprised me a few times with some of the customs she was able to include, always good to learn something new.

Now the bad. The scholarly sources Siefker uses are dated and largely dismissed by modern scholars. She gets a few dates wrong here and there, and her grasp of Ancient Greek Religion is especially terrible. (Dionysus is a not a version of Pan!) Siefker makes wild leaps of faith through space and time, sometimes ignoring hundreds of years of history.

Siefker succeeds in proving about half her argument. Santa Claus might have more in common with Black Pete than Saint Nicholas, but that doesn't mean the history of the figure stretches back to a 15,000 year old cave painting in France.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last couple of Xmases I've read books about the darker side of the holiday: Krampus, Le Befana, Perchta, and their ilk, but this year's volume is focused on the jolly old elf himself. Siefker's book is one of the most comprehensive studies of how Santa evolved from a ceremonial beastman to a Coca Cola pitchman and it's great fun. I knew some of this lore but much of it was new to me and the linkages across cultures are fascinating.

Clearly written and dazzling in its detail, this is not a work to be taken as actual scholarship. Although Siefker is careful to mention in passing that past authorities like Frazer and Murray are largely discounted now, she goes on to rely heavily on their studies and speculations for the last third of the book. That's a minor quibble though if one approaches her musings as speculation on connections that might be true and that are certainly suggestive of the myth of the wild man being worldwide and reflected in our universal rites and amusements. Recommended.

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

Santa Claus is one scary dude.

The title of the book really indicates exactly what the book is about. It is the history of the jolly, bearded man, with references to past incarnations of the character - more likely directly related to Black Pete - the servant of St. Nicholas - than St. Nicholas himself. Black Pete started the tradition of years of painting faces black during festivals and other theatricals. From there to Harlequin, with references to Robin Hood, Robin Goodfellow (son of King Oberon) and Puck, throughout, the evolution of the character we know (and love) as Santa Claus is actually pretty frightening. He was not always so jolly and did not always bring gifts to all the good boys and girls; in fact he was more likely to eat them than reward them. Additionally there is a rather impressive history of the evolution of the reindeer and the elves.

The author has included black and white images throughout the text to detail some of the incarnations of Santa Claus; unfortunately, however, they are not the best reproductions and some of the photos in the latter portion of the book are grainy or entirely too dark to see much. Some of the images would have been great to see in color.

[M. Apple · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointed in this book. I could tell even halfway through the first chapter that it was poorly researched and even more poorly edited. The text wanders through a mish-mosh of detailed information about various folk traditions across Europe, making wild claims based on archaic and outdated scholarship from up to over 150 years ago. Along the way are outlandish claims such as:

"some etymologists trace the word god to the German word for goat, Gott." (The German word for goat is die Ziege, and in Bavaria it's die Goaß, and the English word god has nothing to do with either word).

"The word "scapegoat" lingers on in the English language as a remnant of this ancient practice" [of the ritual slaughter of an animal in the place of a king during fertility rites.) The term "scapegoat" comes from Jewish tradition, whereby the sins of a local community were placed on the head of a goat who would then be driven into the wilderness on Yom Kippur.

There are plenty of other examples of poor scholarship. The more I read, the more often I could only shake my head and wonder how such a badly written book could be published in the first place.

[Cool · Rating 2 out of 5]

Text book reading - reminded me of my college days. The book was interesting - a look at the religious and pagan beliefs of different people and their festivals and celebrations - I could see a thread linking the wild man and pagan rituals to our Santa Claus - but I didn't find it all that helpful in explaining our Christmas Santa Claus and forms of celebration. The book helped me to better understand superstitious beliefs and bizarre rituals of the past and present but not in explaining Santa. Maybe I missed the point - the book never seemed to get to our current Santa - rather it dwelled completely in the far past.

[Chris Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

In terms of defending its thesis that Santa Claus is the descendent of fifty thousand years of human ritual this book gets two stars or less. There are too many leaps of speculation and too many tenuous linkages. However, there really are a lot of great anecdotes and questions raised here that make it a fun idea to ponder even if the supporting evidence is flimsy. I took a lot of notes about areas I’d like to investigate so the author scores points for asking questions worth exploring even if she fails to answer them adequately.

[Clarissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting book... A new theory about the origin of Santa Claus... They even mention La Befana! Written as a research paper, so not too easy to ready. Very well researched. The pictures could also be better quality.

[Kieran Tala Dawnshadow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and well cited.

[Cicely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed information indeed. Covers obscure folk festivals, customs, and history of the Wild Man and his evolving into modern day Santa Claus. That is why it was a slow read. One flaw was the author's last chapter, in which she seems to slap together information about the Ainu, and how they might be linked to the Wild Man.

[Stacey]

Does he ride a red-nosed reindeer?
Does a ton-up on his sleigh?
Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?

Answers inside!

[Osie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, the book is very engaging and a quick, enjoyable read. The illustrations and photos are well worth the price of the book on their own. The book will make a nice addition to your library even if only as a curio. It seems well researched, but is lacking references and citations. It does include a decent bibliography though.

I do have a few complaints about the book. Firstly, the ending was too abrupt and awkward; there should have been a final chapter, or even just an epilogue that ties everything together and summarizes the research. Secondly, I think the connection to the Neanderthals deserved more than the brief mention in chapter 9; I think there is definitely a strong connection to the Wild Men, but it was just glossed over. I got the feeling Siefker was too anxious to get to the Ainu and tried too hard to make them fit into the theory. Lastly, I was very disappointed that Olentzero, the Basque Christmas giant (or jentillak as the Basque call them) that slits the throats of bad children with a sickle, was not mentioned. He fits in very well with the overall assertion of the book and the Basque are perhaps the oldest surviving ethnicity of Europe so their traditions are well worth exploring. That being said, it is very surprising that the author failed to research the Basque at all, since she believes that the fairies and wild men were actually the original inhabitants of Europe, and the Basque are believed to be just that. Their language is not related to Indo-European languages and their culture stretches back into prehistory. Strange that Siefker would miss that, only to jump to the Ainu of Japan.

I know my review sounds mostly negative, but I did enjoy the book and I did find it very interesting. Siefker does explore the folk traditions of Germany and the Alps at length and does a good job of connecting other figures from folk beliefs to Santa Claus (such as Robin Hood, Harlequin and even Pan). I had never heard of the “kinderfresser,” or “child-eater” (perhaps more accurately “child-devourer” since in German animals “fressen” and humans “essen”) before and the drawings of him are somewhere between amusing and disturbing.

[Stella · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last book I read would have the reader believe that Santa Claus = St. Nicholas, with only a little bit of pagan influence. This book goes the opposite direction, with Santa Claus (and most of the mythology of St. Nicholas, too) being primarily from a much older Wild Man tradition. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Fascinating reading, but must be taken with a heavy dose of skepticism, especially in the cross-cultural equations and conclusions. The last two chapters, searching for evidence of fairies as a distinct race of humans or pre-humans, can be dispelled with modern DNA evidence.

Krampus is not named in the book, but kinsmen/aliases like Klaubauf and Bartel are, along with elaborate descriptions of goat-man processions.

Nisse and Tomte are mentioned, but both are attributed to Sweden, when the Nisse is actually Danish.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

So often the traditions of Christmas are rationalized or justified with imaginary explanations. Finally, this book does a great job of setting the record straight. It is carefully researched to show the real evolution of Santa Claus, as well as several other holiday traditions.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and overall good book, seems to have some facts/dates wrong but not really a big deal for me.