Who is Santa Claus?

Who is Santa Clause? Well, Saint Nicholas (Clause comes from the Russian and German variations on the name) was a 5'0" Greek bishop of the city of Myra (Demre, part of modern-day Turkey). He lived from March 15th, AD 270 to December 6th, AD 343. He had a beard, white when he died at 73, and is sometimes depicted wearing the now traditional red garbs of a bishop, though he likely never did. 

So, how does he fit into Christmas? Honestly, not very well, but close enough. His feast day is on December 6th every year and for centuries, people have exchanged gifts to honor his generosity. Nicholas of Myra, though, had four major legends surrounding to him.

In one account, there was a terrible famine. A butcher in town capture three children, killed them, and set them in barrels to be cured and sold as ham. Nicholas saw through the butcher's schemes, however and when he prayed all three children came back to life.

In another account, he saved three innocent thieves from being killed at their execution.

Perhaps his most famous story is how he stopped a merchant ship in port at Myra and asked the sailors to unload wheat for the town. He promised the sailors that they would not lose any wheat when they came to port later and, when they did, the sailors weighed the wheat to find that it still weighed the exact same amount.

His connection to Christmas, though, comes from another story. Nicholas became aware of a poor man who had three daughters. The man was too poor to afford their dowries and was distraught because, as poor women, his daughters would be destined to prostitution. When Nicholas heard about this, he decided to help them. He threw three bags of gold coins through the man's window, each bag with more than enough to pay the dowry of a daughter.

There are many stories to how Nicholas got the man the gold bags. In one account he did this over three nights. In another they were years apart, each time the night before the daughter was to come of age. One account is responsible for our tradition of hanging up stockings at Christmas and Santa coming down a chimney!

In this account, the man decided to catch Nicholas in the act and find out who had been helping him. Some accounts say he did just this, and that Nicholas said, "Thank God for this; it was not from me." Other say that Nicholas heard of the poor man's plot, and, so, threw the bag down the chimney. The daughter had hung up her stockings over the embers in the fire place that night and, so, when the bag of gold fell down the chimney, it landed right in her stocking.

Regardless of which accounts you go by, Nicholas the Wonderworker was an incredible man. If you practice Santa Clause in your home, be sure you honor the real man's memory by telling your children about who the real man was.