Who Is Saint Nickolas?

Saint Nickolas is the most popular name for Nickolas of Myra,a third century Bishop who had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for today's version of the Christmas St. Nick. He lived in what is modern day Turkey.

He became Bishop of Myra in the fourth century, and there are many stories of his love for God and for his neighbor.

The best-known story involves a man with three unmarried daughters, and not enough money to provide them with suitable dowries. This meant that they could not marry, and were likely to end up as prostitutes. Nicholas walked by the man's house on three successive nights, and each time threw a bag of gold in through a window (or, when the story came to be told in colder climates, down the chimney). Thus, the daughters were saved from a life of shame, and all got married and lived happily ever after.

Because of this and similar stories, Nicholas became a symbol of anonymous gift-giving. Hence, if we give a gift to someone today without saying whom it is from, it can be called "a present from Saint Nicholas (or Santa Claus)." Some parents explain this to their children and invite the child to join them in wrapping a toy (either something purchased for that purpose, at least partly with the child's allowance, or else a toy that the child has outgrown but that is still serviceable) or an outgrown but not shabby item of the child's clothing, or a package of food, and then going along to donate it to a suitable shelter that will give it to someone who will welcome it. This gift is then called "a present from Santa," so that the child understands that this is another name for an anonymous gift given to someone whom we do not know, but whom we love anyway because God does.

Here's an interesting site that shows what the real Saint Nickolas probably looked like, based in an excavation of his bones and reconstruction based on skeletal remains:

http://www.imagefoundry.co.uk/index.php?page=2&cat=3&pid=12

I hope you and your family are having a great Christmas. I thought I'd post this information while I'm sitting here waiting for Christmas Dinner to be finished!