Today, St. Nicholas is mostly known as a paunchy old geezer who spends one night each year breaking into people’s houses and stealing cookies before escaping to an Arctic hideaway where elves do his work for him.

Kind of creepy when you think about it.

The good news is that none of this was what the real St. Nicholas—a church leader named Nicholas of Myra—was known for. He was best known in his own day as a defender of the biblical truth that Jesus was fully God and fully man.

According to some reports, Nicholas of Myra may even have been present when more than three hundred church leaders gathered in the village of Nicaea to deal with a false teacher named Arius of Alexandria. There, the church leaders clearly rejected a popular claim that there had been a point when the Son of God had not existed.

And, according to one version of the events, Santa Claus may even have voted against Arius’s claims with something a bit stronger than his voice.

Learn more about Nicholas of Myra and the Council of Nicaea by watching this: “The Real St. Nicholas”

Someone sent me the picture at the top but I can no longer recall or locate the original source. If anyone knows the source, please let me know so that I can give appropriate credit.