Every December, a familiar claim resurfaces: Christmas traditions are pagan, Santa Claus has no Christian basis, and Christians should know better than to celebrate either. But history tells a very different story—one that modern critics either ignore or simply do not know.

At the center of the controversy stands a real man: St. Nicholas, a fourth-century Christian bishop who lived during one of the most violent eras of persecution in church history. Born around A.D. 280 in what is now Turkey, Nicholas gave away his inheritance to help the poor—often secretly—long before “Santa” ever became a cultural symbol.

According to historian William Federer, in an exclusive interview with Alex Newman for The Sentinel Report, the tradition of secret gift-giving traces directly to Nicholas’ efforts to rescue desperate families. In one well-documented account, Nicholas secretly provided dowries for three young women whose bankrupt father faced losing them to creditors. “That’s where the tradition of anonymous gift-giving comes from,” Federer explains—not paganism, but Christian charity in action.

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