The ‘real face’ of Santa Claus has been unveiled for the first time ever.
In a shocking twist just a few days before Christmas 2024, scientists have been able to show us the face of the man who leaves presents for children across the world every year. *wink wink*
We all know how it goes. We leave a mince pie and a glass of milk for Santa, and some carrots for his trusty reindeer, of course.
Families spend a lot of time on Christmas Eve tracking Santa virtually as he embarks on a journey across the globe to deliver presents.
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Then in the morning, the children are over the moon after seeing that the mince pie and carrots have disappeared, and there's an abundance of gifts to unwrap.
By the time children reach adulthood, most will know the truth about this tradition. Santa Claus is based on the mythological Dutch Christmas figure Sinterklaas, who was inspired by the real Saint Nicholas of Myra, an early Christian saint.
The story was transported over to New York (then the Dutch New Amsterdam settlement) and was anglicised into Santa Claus and merged with the existing English Father Christmas figure.
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Little is known about the historical Saint Nicholas, however he became renowned for his reported generosity and secret gift-giving. He was born in 270 AD and died over a thousand years age in 343 AD, which is obviously many years before a photo of the most iconic gift-giver could be photographed.
Alas, scientists have now been able to use the power of technology to create an incredibly realistic 3D image of his face.
As we all know, Santa is generally depicted as a plump man with a white beard, and the 3D depiction is no exception.
Data from the skull of Saint Nicholas of Myra - in what is now Turkey - was used by the scientists to ‘forensically recreate’ his likeness.
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The image is based on ‘statistical projections’ and ‘artistic’ interpretation, with the study’s lead author, Cicero Moraes, describing the face as 'strong and gentle'.
Moraes explained that it was also 'curiously compatible' with the 'broad face' described in the 1823 poem, A Visit From St Nicholas, widely known as ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.
He said: “The skull has a very robust appearance, generating a strong face, as its dimensions on the horizontal axis are larger than average.
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"This resulted in a ‘broad face’ curiously compatible with the 1823 poem.
"This characteristic, combined with a thick beard, is very reminiscent of the figure we have in mind when we think of Santa Claus."
Moraes added: “We initially reconstructed the skull in 3D using this data.
“We then traced the profile of the face using statistical projections.
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“We supplemented this with the anatomical deformation technique, in which the tomography of a living person's head is adjusted so that the virtual donor's skull matches that of the saint.
“The final face is an interpolation of all this information, seeking anatomical and statistical coherence.”
Explaining the broader significance of Saint Nick, Dr Lira added: "He helped those in need so frequently and effectively that when people sought a symbol of kindness for Christmas, the inspiration came from him.
"His memory is universal not only among Christians, but among all peoples."
The study was published in OrtogOnLineMag.
Topics: Christmas, Technology
Gregory Robinson