Rumors that connect Odin to Santa Claus run rampant on the Internet in the Old Norse loving communities, but at least one expert in Norse mythology and literature says that Odin has no relationship to jolly old St. Nicholas. Jackson Crawford has translated many of the most important documents in Norse mythology, and says in his video that he has no idea where the connection between Odin and Santa Claus come from.
False Connections
Crawford’s video takes each point of some Internet articles that connect Odin to Santa Claus and disputes them with logic and knowledge. The eight legs of Odin’s horse Sleipnir are based on coincidence. The number eight can be found a lot of places, and one of Crawford’s research assistants traces the tradition back to 1823’s The Night before Christmas.
Odin does not wear read. He wears blue, gray, or spotted clothing.
Some Internet memes will say that Odin used to leave children gifts. This isn’t the case. Generally, the gifts that Odin gives are to men, who he wants to see in Vahalla. They are gifts of weapons, armor and other things useful in battle. These men will be part of his army at Ragnarok.
Other Connections?
Crawford says that Odin does have a connection to the holiday of jol, which is the Winter Solstice pagan holiday of the Viking age. People now associate jol with yule. One of Odin’s many names from the pre-Christian era is Jolnir, or the “Yuler.”
Odin’s presence in the Wild Hunt may have something to do with the Odin to Santa Claus connection. In the Wild Hunt, Odin rides through the night at jol, but he is the terror of the season. Santa Claus represents the happier and more generous spirit of the season.
Crawford’s arguments make it clear that Odin is no Santa Claus. Trying to draw connections between the two is a fool’s errand.
About Jackson Crawford
Jackson Crawford received his Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He got his M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Georgia. He was a professor of Norse language, myth, and sagas at UCLA from 2011 to 2014, UC Berkeley from 2015 to 2017, and the University of Colorado from 2017 to 2020. His YouTube channel has over 250,000 subscribers. He has consulted on multimedia projects since 2013 including Ubisoft Montréal’s Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Disney’s Frozen. Several of his translations of Norse myth have become bestsellers.
Sources: https://youtu.be/_o5ih9WuCxQ?si=nOzwIid4ga4lt95u
https://sonsofvikings.com/blogs/history/viking-origins-of-christmas-yule-traditions
https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2021/12/27/no-santa-claus-is-not-inspired-by-odin/
Drawing Santa Clause and Odin together is not a fools errand, nor is it misleading. As usual, scholars will introduce complexity in a non-complex political and religious driven goal that existed during the attempted conversion of the Nordic tribes to Christianity. The facts are that Christian monks, and leadership did their upmost to remove Paganism from all culture and as a “peace offering” implemented the opportunity to pray to a myriad of Saints in place of pagan gods. Saint Nicholas was a perfect example. We cannot dismiss the fact that Odin had several names,”gray beard”, the “white wanderer” etc. The correlation between a wise bearded shaman god with strength in magic, poetry, wisdom, war and kingship with a 8 legged horse as his transportation who gave gifts, and continually fought for control over the the winter realm of giants and the dark elves, is a little hard not to compare to an extremely wise, bearded magic user that is the king of elves and uses 8 reindeer as a form of transportation to deliver gifts, and who is a commonly depicted as associating with the giant winter Yeti as well as the focus of the winter solstice This coupled with the fact that many Christmas (Yule Tide) traditions have Nordic roots. Decorated evergreen trees, Yule log, gift giving, feasts of ham, mistletoe, and straw animals. Fact is that when transitioning to Christianity the thought of giving up the cherished gods of paganism was too much for pagan converts and represented a very large stumbling block to missionaries, so churches simply replaced them with their own versions. Saint of Love, Saint of Protection, Saint of Giving, Saint of Motherhood, Saint of light giving etc. preserving the need to pray to multiple deities and keeping peace as was the plan of the Counsel of Nicaea that occurred 700 years before the Norse began their travels to England. There is also the fact that the Norse ruled England, which had very strong Roman roots, for over 100 years impacting the church of England and several aspects of the belief system. There are too many coorelations to simply say “No! Odin is not related to Santa Clause”