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Who is Santa Claus?
Santa Claus is a fictional character of the Christmas and winter seasons. He is the combination of the main subject of several different stories, including the tales of Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, and real-life St. Nicholas of Greece. Santa is depicted in various ways around the world, based on how these stories have come together over time, but in the West, he is shown as a jolly, fat man with a white beard and red suit. He lives at the North Pole, rides a sleigh pulled by reindeer, enters homes of good children once a year via the chimney and delivers toys. People generally consider him to be a symbol of goodwill, hope, magic, and joy, but in some regions he is controversial.
St. Nicholas
St. Nicholas, or St. Nick, was the biggest influence on the Western version of Santa Claus known today. He was a man of Greek origin, born in the 3rd century. His family was very wealthy, but both of his parents died in a plague while he was quite young. Surviving the epidemic, Nicholas took his strict Christian upbringing very seriously and devoted his life to God.
Nicholas rid himself of all his material possessions and set out to help the poor, the infirm and anyone else who was suffering. One popular story describes how he secretly left bags of gold for three poor women who had no dowries. In St. Nicholas’ time, a father could only secure the marriage of his daughters by providing a dowry to her would-be husband. If a father could not afford this, he risked his daughters being sold into slavery. In order to prevent the sale of the daughters of the poor women, St. Nicholas threw the bags of gold through a window, and they landed in stockings left by the fire to dry.
Tales of the saint were very popular in the middle ages, and many communities built churches out of devotion for him and held celebrations on St. Nicholas Day, which is celebrated in modern times on 6 December, the date of his death. The Vikings held him in high esteem and considered him to be the patron saint of ships. In the 8th century C.E., the Vikings spread his good name during their travels. Dutch settlers, who called him "Sint Klaas," introduced St. Nicholas to North America.
http://www.wisegeek.org/who-is-santa-claus.htm
Santa Claus is a fictional character of the Christmas and winter seasons. He is the combination of the main subject of several different stories, including the tales of Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, and real-life St. Nicholas of Greece. Santa is depicted in various ways around the world, based on how these stories have come together over time, but in the West, he is shown as a jolly, fat man with a white beard and red suit. He lives at the North Pole, rides a sleigh pulled by reindeer, enters homes of good children once a year via the chimney and delivers toys. People generally consider him to be a symbol of goodwill, hope, magic, and joy, but in some regions he is controversial.
St. Nicholas
St. Nicholas, or St. Nick, was the biggest influence on the Western version of Santa Claus known today. He was a man of Greek origin, born in the 3rd century. His family was very wealthy, but both of his parents died in a plague while he was quite young. Surviving the epidemic, Nicholas took his strict Christian upbringing very seriously and devoted his life to God.
Nicholas rid himself of all his material possessions and set out to help the poor, the infirm and anyone else who was suffering. One popular story describes how he secretly left bags of gold for three poor women who had no dowries. In St. Nicholas’ time, a father could only secure the marriage of his daughters by providing a dowry to her would-be husband. If a father could not afford this, he risked his daughters being sold into slavery. In order to prevent the sale of the daughters of the poor women, St. Nicholas threw the bags of gold through a window, and they landed in stockings left by the fire to dry.
Tales of the saint were very popular in the middle ages, and many communities built churches out of devotion for him and held celebrations on St. Nicholas Day, which is celebrated in modern times on 6 December, the date of his death. The Vikings held him in high esteem and considered him to be the patron saint of ships. In the 8th century C.E., the Vikings spread his good name during their travels. Dutch settlers, who called him "Sint Klaas," introduced St. Nicholas to North America.
http://www.wisegeek.org/who-is-santa-claus.htm