A lot of people, from little ones to grown-ups, are breathless waiting for Christmas, and
one of the reasons is that we all know that on the morning of Christmas Day, we find under
the Christmas tree the gifts left by Santa Claus.
But who was or rather who is Santa Claus?
With time, so many stories and legends have appeared that people are really confused.
Some don't even know the answer to the question "Who is Santa Claus?", While others claim
that Santa never existed.
Would you be surprised to find out that Santa Claus really did exist, and that in fact,
was actually Saint Nicholas?
Let’s talk about the story of Saint Nick:
Saint Nicholas was a Christian bishop who helped those in need.
After his death, the legend of his gift-giving grew.
Saint Nicholas has become the legendary character named Santa Claus, who brings Christmas presents
to children around the world.
Saint Nicholas was born around 280 A.D in Patara, Lycia, an area that is part of present-day
Turkey.
He lost both his parents as a young man and then used his inheritance to help the poor
and sick.
A devout Christian, he later served as bishop of Myra, a city now called Demre.
There are many legends about St. Nicholas of Myra.
One story tells how he helped three poor sisters.
Their father did not have enough money to pay for his dowry and thought of selling them
into servitude.
When the eldest daughter reached the age when she was to marry, Saint Nick left a bag of
gold at the door of their house at night.
The same thing happened when it came the time for the second girl to get married.
When the time came for the third girl to get married, the father of the daughters, curious
to find out who left the bag of gold, stood guard and saw Saint Nicholas.
The bishop realized that he was being followed and took the bag, climbed on the house, and
released the bag through the chimney of the house, in a sock left there to dry.
This is how the tradition of hanging the stockings above the fireplace during the Christmas Holidays
appeared.
However, Saint Nicholas asked the man to keep the secret, but he did not respect the bishop's
request and told everyone.
Later, anyone who received an unexpected gift thought it was from Saint Nick and thanked
him for the gift.
The three bags of gold became, according to legend, the symbol of Saint Nicholas in the
form of three golden balls, hence the tradition of offering oranges on the occasion of St.
Nicholas.
Some sources state that St. Nicholas died on December 6, 343 A.D.
Over the years, stories about his miracles and good deeds for the poor spread to other
parts of the world.
He became known as the protector of children and sailors and was associated with the giving
of gifts.
He was a popular saint in Europe until the time of the Protestant Reformation in the
1500s, a religious movement that led to the creation of Protestantism, which had stopped
the practice of honoring the saints.
However, St. Nicholas remained an important figure in the Netherlands.
The Dutch continued to celebrate St. Nicholas' Day, on December 6.
It was common practice for children to put their shoes in front of the fireplace the
night before in the hope of presents.
In the morning, they would discover the gifts that St. Nicholas left there for them.
Dutch immigrants brought the legend of St. Nicholas to America, known to them as “Sint
Nikolaas” or by his nickname, “Sinterklaas”, in the 1700s.
St. Nicholas went through many transformations in the United States: “Sinterklaas” became
Santa Claus and, instead of giving presents on December 6, became part of the Christmas
holidays.
In the 1820 poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," by Clement Clarke Moore, he is described as
a cheerful, heavy-handed man who descends through the chimney to leave gifts for good
children and drives a sleigh pulled by flying reindeers.
The cartoonist Thomas Nast joined the legend of Saint Nicholas, with a drawing of Santa
Claus from 1881, wearing a red suit, with a white fur coat.
Once a good, charitable bishop, Saint Nicholas became the Santa Claus we know today.
Everywhere in the world, Santa Claus is much better known, and his name is more renowned
than Saint Nicholas.
But we must not forget that Santa Claus would never have existed without Saint Nick.