The Rest of the Story…

…on how St. Nicholas became Santa Claus. Read on 🙂  In the 4th century there was a very wealthy man named Nicholas who was also very kind and very generous.  He went about anonymously helping people in need.  The story goes that one very poor man with 3 daughters who wanted to be married, had a problem. He had no money for their dowries which he needed to give to the families of his future sons-in-law so his daughters could be married. Someone who knew of his plight secretly dropped a bag of money down his chimney late at night.  The girls’ stockings were hung to dry by the fire and the bag of money happened to fall into one of the stockings.  The money allowed the eldest daughter to marry.  It happened again when the second daughter was ready to marry.  Before it was time for his third daughter to marry the man set about to see who had been dropping bags of money down his chimney to help his daughters.

He hid and waited, and sure enough, he caught Nicholas in the act.  Nicholas pleaded with him not to tell anyone because he wanted his actions to remain quiet, and for there to be no attention drawn to him.  But the man couldn’t hold on to the secret and soon everyone knew who the generous “helper” was.  (This is probably where the concept of “Secret Santa” began.)

The stories of Nicholas and his kindness and generosity spread, and he later became sainted for his kindness and generosity.  The stories of St. Nicholas continued to be retold for several centuries until the 16th century when they finally fell out of favor.  But someone had to be the one to deliver gifts to children at Christmas, so in England, he became ‘Father Christmas’.  In France, he was then known as ‘Père Nöel’.

In some countries, like Germany and Austria, the gift giver became the ‘Christking’ (or Christkind).

Early on in the USA his name was ‘Kris Kringle’ (derived from Christkind). Some Dutch settlers in the USA brought the old stories of St. Nicholas with them, and Kris Kringle and St Nicholas became ‘Sinterklaas’ or as we know him today, ‘Santa Claus’!  And now you know…the rest of the story 🙂

So put out the cookies and hang up your stockings because in just a few days time, Santa Claus is coming to town!