You know the guy with big white beard, wearing red suit, who gives out presents every year on Christmas Eve. That guy is based off of another person. Saint Nicholas.
Nicholas lived about 300 years after Jesus. So for us, it's about 1700 years ago.
He was born in a city Patara and lived in Myra. Both towns were in the province of Leicester in modern day Turkey. Paul visited both cities during his travels.
He is famous for being generous not surprised to find he had generous parents. When he was young his mom and dad used to volunteer to help the sick and the poor. They became sick themselves and died from the service.
He became the leader of the Church in Myra. He was nicknamed The Boy Bishop because he was so young. Only 30 years old. 30 doesn't sound too young to me, but it does for the old people.
His compassion for the needy was marked by constant acts of anonymous generosity. One legend say that a man was so poor he was going to sell his daughters into slavery to pay his debt. Nicholas snuck over to the man's house in the middle of the night. Three nights in a row. Each night he tossed a bag of gold through the man's window. One bag for each daughter. By doing that he saved the three girls.
He was also a man of justice. The legends tell of three men that were sentenced to death for a crime they didn't even commit. Nicholas knew the judge had taken a bribe. According to the story just as the men were about to be killed, he stormed into the room, grabbed the sword from the executioner's hand and threw it on the floor. Nicholas demanded that the men be freed and they were.
Hundreds of years later, nuns in France were inspired by Nicholas. They would sneak out at night and leave gifts for the poor. They didn't want to take credit so when asked who gave the gift, they simply shrugged and said must have been Saint Nicholas.
These actions became traditions and those traditions became tied to the Christmas season. We still honour the legacy of Nicholas with gifts and generosity. The Dutch name for Saint Nicholas is Sint Nikolass which shorten to Santa Klaas and that is where we get the name Santa Claus.
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