The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. 

It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. One of the best known of the St. Nicholas stories is that he saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father by providing them with a dowry so that they could be married.

Over the course of many years, Nicholas's popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6. This was traditionally considered a lucky day to make large purchases or to get married. 

By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe. Even after the Protestant Reformation when the veneration of saints began to be discouraged, St. Nicholas maintained a positive reputation, especially in Holland.

The many faces of St.Nick

Eighteenth-century America's Santa Claus was not the only St. Nicholas-inspired gift-giver to make an appearance at Christmas Time. Similar figures were popular all over the world. Christkind or Kris Kringle was believed to deliver presents to well-behaved Swiss and German children. Meaning "Christ child," Christkind is an angel-like figure often accompanied by St. Nicholas on his holiday missions.

In Scandinavia, a jolly elf named Jultomten was thought to deliver gifts in a sleigh drawn by goats.

English legend explains that Father Christmas visits each home on Christmas Eve to fill children's stockings with holiday treats. 

Pere Noel is responsible for filling the shoes of French children.

In Russia, it is believed that an elderly woman named Babouschka purposely gave the wise men wrong directions to Bethlehem so that they couldn't find Jesus. Later, she felt bad, but could not find the men to undo the damage. To this day, on January 5, Babouschka visits Russian children leaving gifts at their bedsides in the hope that one of them is the baby Jesus and she will be forgiven.

In Italy, a similar story exists about a woman called La Befana, a kindly witch who rides a broomstick down the chimneys of Italian homes to deliver toys into the stockings of lucky children.

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal minister, wrote a long Christmas poem for his three daughters entitled, "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas." Moore's poem, which he was hesitant to publish due to the frivolous nature of its subject, is largely responsible for our modern image of Santa Claus as a "right jolly old elf" and a supernatural ability to ascend up a chimney with a mere nod of his head! 

Although some of Moore's imagery was probably borrowed from other sources, his poem helped to popularize the now-familiar idea of a Santa Claus who flew from house to house on Christmas Eve in "a miniature sleigh" led by eight flying reindeer, whom he also named, leaving presents for deserving children.

"An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas," created a new and immediately popular American icon. In 1881, political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on Moore's poem to create the first likeness that matches our modern image of Santa Claus. His cartoon, which appeared in Harper's Weekly, depicted Santa as a rotund, cheerful man with a full, white beard, holding a sack laden with toys for lucky children. It was Nast who gave Santa his bright red suit trimmed with white fur, North Pole workshop, elves, and his wife, Mrs. Claus.

For those who wish to read the poem T'was the Night Before Christmas one more time, click on the link below: