As the holiday season approaches, and we all brace for the onslaught of “Santa Baby” in every public space, East Calais author M.T. Anderson is asking the real questions. Namely, who was the historical Santa Claus, did he actually give people gifts, how did he become an icon of seasonal commerce, and where do his remains reside? (Hint: not at the North Pole.)
In his new nonfiction book, Stealing Saint Nick: A Legendary Corpse, a Notorious Theft, and the Stories That Shape the World, the National Book Award winner traces the 1,700-year history of Saint Nicholas, from his life in fourth-century Anatolia to the daring theft of his bones from his homeland during the Crusades to his 19th-century American transformation into a jolly old elf.
In the book, Anderson describes the Santa saga as “a wild tale of demons, saints, gods, monsters, and holy spells,” and he isn’t exaggerating. But, he notes, “it is also a story of politics: empires falling — cities fighting for mastery — merchants using a dead saint’s body as a pawn in games of wealth and power.” Published by a young adult imprint but equally appropriate for adults, Stealing Saint Nick is as gleefully witty as it’s revelatory. Between the jokes, it asks serious questions about why our often ungenerous and brutal species idolizes saints and heroes who represent the opposite qualities.
Anderson, who will read from the book at several local events, answered three questions about it for us.
You also wrote a novel for adults loosely based on the theft of Saint Nicholas’ bones, Nicked, published in 2024 and a Vermont Book Award finalist. Which came first for you, the fiction or the nonfiction, and how are they related?
I had read these bizarre, forgotten stories about Saint Nicholas — stories of him confronting a demon goddess and a serial killer couple, for example — and I decided they might be the basis for a book. As I did research, I came across a brief mention of this unbelievable story: Two Italian cities, Bari and Venice, raced to be the first to steal his corpse from his tomb. Immediately, I knew I wanted to give that story a fictional glow-up and turn it into a heist novel. It became Nicked, which is a monastic rom-com and a swashbuckling, action-movie meditation on what it means to have a corruptible body.
While I did the research into the real heist, though, I discovered two documents in Latin that had never been translated. They actually told a somewhat different story about the heist, a more nuanced one. I decided to write a nonfiction version for people young and old which took a historical approach to the real life of Santa Claus and the theft of his corpse. In Stealing Saint Nick, I have tried to combine three types of evidence to tell this story: the written narratives (and surviving contracts and payment stubs), the archaeological evidence at the crime scene, and the modern forensic evidence from Santa Claus’ postmortem. (Yes. That’s real.)
This book is rich in surprising and entertaining facts, but what’s one core idea you hope readers will take away from it?
It’s really a book about how we build different kinds of heroes at different times in history. Saint Nicholas first appeared in the fourth century, a moment when the old idea of classical heroism — things like The Odyssey, that old swords-and-sandals heroism — was replaced by the idea of martyrdom, the victim as hero. He was reinterpreted several times, becoming, in the 19th and 20th centuries, Santa Claus, the patron saint of commercial consumerism. I’m fascinated by the way that to understand even this whimsical figure, you have to understand the rise and fall of nations, empires and entire religions.
When did you stop believing in Santa Claus (if you did), and why? What do you think it means to believe?
Just at the point where I was about to become an unbeliever, my dad intervened by stomping some boots in soot and then leaving footprints going from the fireplace to the tree. That delayed my apostasy for, like, a year or two.
But I still believe Saint Nicholas was a fascinating and generous person who transformed the places around him — a true hero, though steeped in myth. ➆
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Secret Santa | Three questions for M.T. Anderson on his new nonfiction book, Stealing Saint Nick“
This article appears in September 23 • 2026.
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