|| The Legend behind the Character of Santa Claus 🎅🏻 ||

First of all, I wish you a very Happy Christmas.😇

Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts to the homes of well-behaved ("good" or "nice") children on Christmas Eve (24 December) and the early morning hours of Christmas Day (25 December).

The Man Behind the Story of Father Christmas/Santa Claus 🎅🏻

St. Nicholas was a Bishop who lived in the 4th century in a place called Myra now in Turkey. He was a very wealthy man because his parents died when he was young and left him a lot of money & property. He was also a very generous man and had an image for helping the needy and giving secret gifts & surprises to people who needed it.
Santa Claus also has some other names: Saint Nicholas, St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Pelznickel.
There are several legends about St. Nicholas, although we don't know if any of them are true!

The most famous story about Santa Claus tells how the custom of hanging up stockings to put presents in first started! It goes like this:

There was a poor man who had 3 daughters. The man was so poor that he did not have enough money for a dowry, so his daughters couldn't get married. One night, Nicholas secretly dropped a bag of gold down the chimney and into the house. The bag fell into a stocking that had been hung by the fire to dry!
This was repeated later with the 2nd daughter. Finally, determined to discover the person who had given him the money, the father secretly hid by the fire every evening until he caught Nicholas dropping in a bag of gold. Nicholas begged the man to not tell anyone what he had done, because he did not want to bring attention to himself. But soon the news got out and when anyone received a secret gift, it was thought that maybe it was from Nicholas.

St. Nicholas was exiled from Myra and later put in prison during the persecution by the Emperor Diocletian. No one really knows when he died, but it was on 6th December in either 345 or 352. In 1087, his bones were stolen from Turkey by some Italian merchant sailors. The bones are now kept in the Church named after him in the Italian port of Bari. On St. Nicholas feast day (6th December), the sailors of Bari still carry his statue from the Cathedral out to sea, so that he can bless the waters and so give them safe voyages throughout the year.