The Night before Christmas
’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.
And Mama in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.
THOSE OPENING lines of Clement Clarke Moore's much-loved poem A Visit from Saint Nicholaswill have joy-filled resonances throughout Ireland tonight as children head to bed in happy anticipation of a visit from Santa Claus. And parents will be hoping children sleep well and safe – and that when they wake, it will be to the joys of Christmas and its true message.
Since it was first published in 1823, Moore’s poem has shaped many of our images of Santa Claus: his appearance, the night of his visit, his means of transport, the number and names of his reindeer, his landing on roofs, and how he climbs down chimneys with toys to fill stockings by the fire. Moore was a professor of biblical studies, a classical scholar and the son of an Episcopalian bishop. And so there is no accident in the way he transformed Saint Nicholas of Myra, a Byzantine bishop, into Santa Claus.
Saint Nicholas was one of the fathers of the Council of Nicaea, where he defended traditional Christian doctrine. But as myths developed around his life, he became a secret giver of gifts, putting coins in the shoes of poor children. One story tells how a butcher lured three children into his house, slaughtered them and planned to sell them as meat pies. When Nicholas heard of the ghoulish crime, he prayed and raised the three boys back to life. Another tradition tells how three poor girls were left without a dowry and faced being sold into prostitution. After dark, Nicholas went to their house and threw three purses filled with gold, one for each, down the chimney.
Victorian writers built on those medieval myths, transforming Nicholas from a saintly bishop to a roly-poly gift-giver. But the metamorphosis of the generous bishop into the commercially lucrative Santa Claus should not detract from the lessons to be learned from the myths about Saint Nicholas as the bishop who cared for the poor and who was the defender and rescuer of children endangered by poverty, degradation, exploitation and abuse.
In the light of recent events – including the resignation yesterday of a second Catholic bishop – the legacy of Saint Nicholas provides a timely example. On this Christmas Eve, Nicholas reminds us that the care of children and their protection from abuse and exploitation is not an extra in the ministry of a bishop. It must be at its very heart. When all bishops live up to this responsibility in word and in action, then we can echo the original final line in Moore’s poem: “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night”.