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The picture that comes in our mind when we think of Santa Claus is an old jolly looking man in red and white costume, with a "pot belly" and "snow white beard". But the real man behind the story is a young man. Looking into the young man's life story takes us back to 280 A.D.
A baby boy was born in a village of Patara, in Asia minor. He was named Nicholas. He was the only child of a well off parents. When he was twelve or thirteen a plague hit Patara and took away both his parents. He gave much of the money his parents left behind to charity. When Nicholas turned ninteen he was made a priest by the Christian church. He made a pilgrimage to the Holy city of Jerusalem. Soon after he returned he was named Bishop of Myra, a city near Patara. The people of the city called him the boy Bishop, because he was so young.
As years went by Nicholas gave more of himself and did many kind things, he helped many people up until he died on December sixth, 343 A.D. People throughout Asia still told the stories of Nicholas's kindness and generosity long after he died.
Little is known of Saint. Nicholas. But he was known as the patron of children and sailors, of Greece, Sicily, and Russia, and of many other places and persons. In the present day, he is the subject of many legends. He is credited with restoring to life three boys who had been chopped up and pickled in salt by a butcher. Another famous story concerns his giving three bags of gold to the daughters of a poor man and thus saving them from lives of prostitution. Later tradition transformed the bags into three gold balls, which became the symbol of pawnbrokers.
In the Netherlands and elsewhere St. Nicholas's feast (Dec. 6) is a children's holiday. The English in colonial New York adopted from the Dutch the now unrecognizable saint, calling him Santa Claus (a contraction of the Dutch Sint Nikolaas). They moved his feast day to the English gift holiday, Christmas. The career and qualities attributed to Santa Claus are all recently acquired.
As people told the story time and time again small parts changed and a little more was added. They made up songs and stories, legends to teach children of sharing and kindness. In all the stories St. Nicholas was thought to be wearing a long red robe with a Bishops hat. He was also thought to be tall and skinny. But as the stories changed and many people around the world changed so did St. Nick. He is now portrayed as a short, round, jolly old man with a red fur trimmed suit and eight tiny reindeer. As the legend changed he now visits homes and leaves gifts for good children of December twenty- fifth.
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