Who Brings the Presents? A Tour of Christmas Gift-Bringers

Ask a roomful of adults who brings the presents and you will get a surprisingly long argument. The answer depends on the country, and sometimes on the street, and it also decides which night the stockings or shoes come out. This is a short tour of gift-bringers that are documented in encyclopaedias, tourist boards and universities, with the date each one is expected. If you are mixing two family traditions, it doubles as a calendar.

The saint who became Santa

Britannica traces Santa Claus to Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop of Myra in what is now Turkey, whose western feast day is 6 December. Dutch settlers carried the custom of Sinterklaas to New Amsterdam, now New York, in the seventeenth century, and English speakers turned the name into Santa Claus. The image of a kindly old man in red settled in the United States during the nineteenth century.

Britain's Father Christmas started somewhere else entirely. English Heritage says he appears as a personified Christmas in Ben Jonson's 1616 masque, presiding over grown-up feasting rather than presents. By the 1880s, English Heritage says, Santa Claus had almost completely merged with Father Christmas, who by then was understood to come down chimneys with toys and sweets for stockings.

The Netherlands: Sinterklaas, 5 December

The St. Nicholas Center describes his arrival on Dutch television in mid-November, by steamer from Spain, in a different harbour each year. Families celebrate on the evening of 5 December, with gifts and surprises. Children set a shoe by the window or fireplace, often with a drawing and a carrot or hay for his horse, and find chocolate and small presents in the morning.

Germany and Austria: the Christkind, Christmas Eve

The University of Hamburg describes the Christkind as an invisible, angelic messenger with blond curls, a white robe and a halo. Its history runs through the Reformation, when Protestant areas moved away from venerating saints such as Nicholas. The same article says some people credit Martin Luther with inventing it, though that is disputed and unproven. Gift-giving moved from 6 December to Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and the Christkind later spread into Catholic regions too.

Italy: La Befana, the night of 5 January

Britannica describes Befana as an old woman in a shawl and kerchief, riding or carrying a broom, who fills stockings on Epiphany, 6 January. Visit Tuscany, the region's tourism site, puts her visit in the night between 5 and 6 January. The legend says she was too busy housekeeping to join the Magi, changed her mind too late and has been searching ever since, leaving gifts as she goes. Good children get sweets; naughty ones get coal.

Spain: the Three Kings, 5 and 6 January

Spain's official tourism site says parades pass through towns on the evening of 5 January, and that night children put out a shoe for the Three Kings to fill. On 6 January the presents are opened and families eat roscón de reyes, a decorated cake hiding a tiny figure. In Catalonia, Catalunya.com adds a rival: the Tió de Nadal, a painted log in a barretina. Families feed it small treats in the weeks before Christmas, then on the night of the 24th or the morning of the 25th, depending on the family, the children sing and gently tap the blanket-covered log with a stick until presents appear.

Sweden: the Jultomte, Christmas Eve

Sweden's gift-bringer is the Christmas gnome. The Local reports that the Jultomte delivers on Christmas Eve, and that a Christmas goat did the job earlier. Europeana credits the writer Viktor Rydberg, who published a Christmas Eve story in 1871, and the illustrator Jenny Nyström, whose drawings linked the Swedish Santa to the farm gnomes of folklore. Her gnomes later appeared on many Swedish Christmas cards.

Iceland: thirteen Yule Lads, 12 to 24 December

Iceland takes the opposite approach to a single visitor. Visit Iceland, the country's official tourism site, lists thirteen Yule Lads, sons of the troll Grýla, who arrive one at a time between 12 and 24 December. Children leave a shoe on the windowsill and find a small gift in the morning, or, if they have misbehaved, a potato. Grýla herself, the same source notes, is rumoured to prefer naughty children for supper.

Russia: Ded Moroz, New Year

Ded Moroz, Grandfather Frost, comes with his granddaughter Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden. Time reports that he has pagan Slavic roots, was banished into exile in 1928, and was brought back in 1935 with orders to deliver presents at New Year instead. He brings them on the morning of 1 January, and Christmas trees came back as New Year trees.

Choosing your own calendar

Nothing in these sources suggests one tradition is the correct one. The dates are the practical part: the Dutch evening of 5 December, the Icelandic run from 12 December and the Italian night of 5 January all fall well away from the 25th, so a household with relatives in two countries can end up with presents on several separate nights. Many families end up borrowing: shoes on the evening of 5 December, stockings on Christmas Eve, and a cake on 6 January. If you would like a practical addition, our post on writing to Santa lists the real postal addresses, and Christmas Eve rituals collects the customs that make the night itself worth keeping.

Sources

Where the facts in this post come from. Rankings and lists belong to the people who published them; the selection and the stories are ours.

1. Santa Claus, Encyclopaedia Britannica — Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas to New Amsterdam, 19th-century image, Father Christmas in the UK
2. St. Nicholas, Encyclopaedia Britannica — Fourth-century bishop of Myra, western feast day 6 December
3. The History of Father Christmas, English Heritage — Ben Jonson 1616, role as feasting figure, almost completely merged with Santa by the 1880s
4. Netherlands, St. Nicholas Center — Mid-November arrival by steamer, 5 December evening, shoes
5. Who is the Christkind?, University of Hamburg — Christkind as angelic messenger, Reformation, Luther claim disputed, shift from 6 December to Christmas Eve or Day
6. Befana, Encyclopaedia Britannica — Epiphany stockings, shawl and broom, the legend of the Magi
7. Who is La Befana?, Visit Tuscany — Befana visits the night between 5 and 6 January, sweets for good children, coal for naughty ones
8. Three Kings Day in Spain, Spain.info social newsroom — Evening parades 5 January, shoe left that night, presents and roscón on 6 January
9. The Caga Tió, Catalunya.com (Catalan tourism) — Tió de Nadal log, feeding in the weeks before Christmas, night of 24 December or morning of the 25th
10. How a folklore tomte became Sweden's Santa, The Local Sweden — Jultomte delivers on Christmas Eve, earlier Christmas goat, Rydberg 1871
11. Jenny Nyström, the woman who created the image for a Swedish Christmas, Europeana — Rydberg and Nyström, 1871, tomte folklore link
12. Meet the Icelandic yule troll family, Visit Iceland — Thirteen Yule Lads, 12 to 24 December, shoes, Grýla
13. History of Santa Claus in Soviet Russia, TIME — Ded Moroz banished 1928, returned 1935, delivers on 1 January, Snegurochka