--- title: Internet Has Merry Jokes About the Death of Santa Claus description: Archeologists believe they've uncovered the tomb of the real Santa Claus, in Turkey, meaning the mythical character is real — but also dead. canonical: https://time.com/4970671/santa-claus-dead/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-05T16:37:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:48.737Z og:title: The Internet Has Mixed Feelings About Santa Claus Dying og:description: The discovery of St. Nick's tomb might be confusing for kids og:url: https://time.com/4970671/santa-claus-dead/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06708334d7a5afc7/6988e0b7cf40a81274c49b09/santa-claus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Brooks Brothers Celebrates The Holidays With St. Jude Children's Research Hospital og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Has Mixed Feelings About Santa Claus Dying twitter:description: The discovery of St. Nick's tomb might be confusing for kids twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06708334d7a5afc7/6988e0b7cf40a81274c49b09/santa-claus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Has Mixed Feelings About the Discovery of Santa Claus's Grave > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 5, 2017 4:37 PM UTC  Santa Claus attends an evening hosted by Brooks Brothers to celebrate the holidays with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital at Brooks Brothers on December 13, 2016 in New York City. Santa Claus attends an evening hosted by Brooks Brothers to celebrate the holidays with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital at Brooks Brothers on December 13, 2016 in New York City. Bennett Raglin—Getty Images for Brooks Brothers  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 5, 2017 4:37 PM UTC Just in time to start building up his pre-holiday hype, Santa Claus is back in the news. Archeologists announced [they have uncovered](http://time.com/4970103/santa-claus-tomb-discovery-turkey/) what they believe to be the tomb of one St. Nicholas in Turkey — and his remains might even still be there. The discovery of the grave of the real-life Santa Claus, [St. Nicholas](http://time.com/vault/issue/1932-01-04/page/12/) has delighted many. But also, for some believers in the fable, this update is tinged with sadness. After all, if his tomb exists, then the reindeer-driving character who brings joy to children on Christmas Eve must indeed have been mortal. And clearly he no longer is capable of his midnight gift deliveries. Because he’s dead. Luckily, the internet is here to help us make sense of this new information. But don’t lose hope: it’s just the tomb — so far. > [](https://twitter.com/thhamilton/status/915265909199183872) > [](https://twitter.com/ashleyatemple/status/915912769337257984) > [](https://twitter.com/RobWAnderson/status/915396634741178370) > [](https://twitter.com/KatieCurtis/status/915599740955430912) > [](https://twitter.com/Donaithnen/status/915967102225342464) > [](https://twitter.com/RLMProvisions/status/915964603279958016) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4970671/santa-claus-dead/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4970671/santa-claus-dead/"},"headline":"The Internet Has Mixed Feelings About the Discovery of Santa Claus's Grave","datePublished":"2017-10-05T16:37:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:48.737Z","description":"Archeologists believe they've uncovered the tomb of the real Santa Claus, in Turkey, meaning the mythical character is real — but also dead.","url":"https://time.com/4970671/santa-claus-dead/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","santa claus","Holidays","Science","Holiday 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06708334d7a5afc7/6988e0b7cf40a81274c49b09/santa-claus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06708334d7a5afc7/6988e0b7cf40a81274c49b09/santa-claus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Brooks Brothers Celebrates The Holidays With St. Jude Children's Research Hospital","caption":"Brooks Brothers Celebrates The Holidays With St. Jude Children's Research Hospital","creditText":"Bennett Raglin—Getty Images for Brooks Brothers","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4970671/santa-claus-dead/","name":"The Internet Has Mixed Feelings About the Discovery of Santa Claus's Grave"}}]}] ```