Like many beings and figures in our Nordic traditions, Santa Claus is a mixture of old and new and he has features from different traditions and contexts. The Swedish Tomte and the Nordic Nisse have similarities, and they are symbols for one of our most popular holidays.

Historically, Santa Claus carries features of both great goodness as well as evil. When Tomten/Santa Claus is asking “Finns det några snälla barn?”/ “Are there any good children here?” it is a cultural remnant of the terrible Krampus, who was a figure of the Devil himself. Krampus had with him a basket in which he put bad children, to later eat them. In the Catholic Christian tradition, St. Nicolaus is the saint who personifies goodness and generosity. Krampus appeared with the good St. Nicholas during Christmas, as late as the mid-20th century.

As early as the Middle Ages in smaller cities in Germany, one could see processions on December 6, when St. Nicholas stepped into the square with a goat in a rope. The goat was Krampus, the image of the Devil. One can interpret the scene as the good Nicolaus taming Krampus, and that it meant a symbolic game between good and evil.

The tradition of Krampus did not exist in the Nordic tradition, but instead there was the Jul-bocken/Christmas-ram. We know that during the 18th and 19th centuries, disguised processions went through villages in Sweden and in the group there was a figure dressed as a ram/goat, which was at the time a common symbol of the Devil. He roared and shouted, while someone knocked on the door until the door was opened. Then someone took the opportunity to throw a piece of wood or a wooden doll in through the door. This is probably the origin of the word Jul-klapp/Christmas-bang. Not until the latter part of the 18th century did the old Jul-klapp become what we today associate with Christmas gifts. Jul-Klapp is what a Christmas gift is called in Swedish.

During the 19th century, the mean and evil Jul-bock disappeared from the Swedish tradition. Popular today in Swedish Christmas decoration is to have a small straw ram/goat that depicts the goat as a helper to the Tomte in delivering the gifts.

To find the connection to the newer St. Nicholas, we must go to the United States and to the beginning of the 18th century. Here St. Nicholas appears as a figure that is rather similar to the modern Santa. He is called Father Christmas or Santa Claus and goes back to an Anglo-Saxon and Western European tradition from the Middle Ages.

In America Santa Claus was first linked to cities, which during the 19th century grew with industrialization. He became increasingly popular, but it wasn’t until the middle of the century that he became famous as a Christmas figure. One of the reasons was the political & satirical magazine Harper's Weekly and the talented cartoonist Thomas Nast. In 1863 Thomas Nest introduced Santa Claus by drawing him as quite fat and jolly, and carrying Christmas presents for the children. Santa Claus's popularity grew as industrialization progressed.

During the 1920s, Coca Cola picked up Santa Claus by the Swedish-American cartoonist Haddon Sundblom. This certainly contributed to Santa's popularity in Europe and Sweden as well. It can be said that Santa Claus has a remarkably diverse background.

There is another mythological creature from Scandinavian folklore the Nordic Tomte was influenced by, The Gårds-Tomten/Homestead Gnome. In Swedish folk tradition, there were notions that in addition to humans and animals, there was also a Tomte/Gnome living on the homestead. He was a little creature, no taller than three feet with a beard. He wore dark or neutral colored wool clothes and a knitted red hat. Most people associate Gnomes with Christmas, but the Gnomes live around us all year. When his extra busy time around Christmas is over, he will go back to his ordinary responsibilities as a Hus-Tomte/House-Gnome.

According to tradition, the Tomte lives in the house or the barn of the farmstead, and secretly acts as its guardian. If treated well, he protects the family and animals from evil and misfortune and may also aid with chores and farm work. However, he is known to be short tempered, especially when offended. Once insulted, he can misplace items and play other tricks on the people living in the house.

The Jul-Tomte appears on Christmas Eve, knocking on the door and handing out presents. He is doing this on Christmas Eve in the Nordic countries to be able to get gifts to the people in America during Christmas day.

As a thank you for the service the Tomte is providing, it is customary to leave him a bowl of rice porridge with butter around Christmastime.

When the Swedish artist Jenny Nyström used the Gårds-Tomten/Homestead Gnome in her pictures at the end of the 18th century, she visually connected him with the Christmas celebration.

Tomten thus carries a lot of influences from the whole western world and would hardly exist without Swedish folkloric traditions and the modern mass media of today. It can also be said that TOMTEN would be much less interesting without the combination of good and evil.