Rome Newsroom, Dec 23, 2022 / 10:00 am
Every year on the feast of St. Nicholas, Issa Anis Kassisieh dons a red suit, black boots, and a thick white beard. He mounts a camel in the outskirts of Jerusalem and rides into the streets of the Old City.
The 44-year-old Orthodox Christian, a former soccer pro who played in Europe and the United States, coaches basketball at his local YMCA.
But every December for 16 years, he has become the “Jerusalem Santa.”
Kassisieh told ACI MENA, CNA’s Middle Eastern news partner, that while Santa Claus is an invented figure, his motive as a Christian for dressing up as the character is to remind people that the feast of Christmas celebrates an event that took place in the Middle East — the birth of Christ.
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