The purpose of the essay is to investigate how eight students at Linnaeus University perceive Santa Claus and whether there are similarities and differences between their perceptions of Santa Claus in adulthood compared to their childhood. The study also aims to investigate in what ways the Santa Claus figure in students’ stories about Christmas celebrations exhibits ritualized behavior and what types of social functions Santa Claus fills today.  The theory used to interpret the students’ replies is Catherine Bell’s ritual theory. The results of the study show that when students perceive Santa Claus they tend to create links to memories of their celebrations of Christmas in childhood and ascribe to Santa Claus various social and emotional functions such as creating happiness and bringing families together. From the analysis it is possible to see that Santa Claus fulfills almost all of Catherine Bell’s criteria except sacral symbolism, which was only expressed by three of the informants.