[Lady Valkyrie]

Santa Claus
Saint Nicholas was the patron saint of storm-tossed sailors. He also defended young children and gave generous gifts to the poor. He was even said to have delivered a bag of gold to a poor family by throwing it through a window. When the legend spread throughout Europe, his role as a gift-giver was emphasized.
The feast day of Saint Nicholas was observed on December 6 and gifts were given. After the Reformation, German Protestants encouraged instead the veneration of the Christkindl (Christ child) as a gift giver on the traditional nativity date, December 25. Yet the Nicholas tradition endured and became attached to Christmas. The term Christkindl evolved to Kriss Kringle, a popular nickname for Santa Claus.

The Santa Claus figure, though a Christian saint in origin, replaced (if it did not actually incorporate) various pagan gift-giving figures such as the Roman Befana and the Germanic Berchta and Knecht Ruprecht.

In countries such as Holland and Germany, the Santa Claus figure was sometimes said to ride through the sky on a horse. He was depicted wearing a bishop's robes and was accompanied at times by Black Peter, an elf whose job was to whip the naughty children.

Santa Claus traces his lineage directly to St. Nicholas, a 4th century bishop in Myra, a region in present-day Turkey. Born into a wealthy family, both of Nicholas´ parents died of the plague when he was still young, but Nicholas decided to forsake his fortune and dedicate his life to charity. As the legend goes, the teen-age Nicholas saved the three daughters of a poor man from prostitution by throwing bags of gold through his window. Renowned for his generosity, especially to children,

Here is where our tradition of the Christmas stocking was born. According to legend it was claimed that once while trying to help a man who needed a dowry for his daughter, Nicholas threw a bag of gold through the man's window. The bag of gold landed in one of the girl's stockings that had been hung up to dry.

Nicholas suffered through Emperor Diocletian's persecution of the Christians. After his death, Nicholas´ legend and popularity grew, and December 6th was eventually adopted as the pageant of St. Nicholas, with Nicholas himself delivering presents to the children the night before.

This tradition continued throughout Europe until the Protestant Reformation, when Martin Luther argued against the worship of saints, and St. Nicholas was phased out of many Christmas celebrations. Martin Luther, instead, substituted the baby Jesus as the deliverer of presents during Christmas. The people, especially sailors, were not ready to give up a popular and patron saint. Drawings from this time show the baby Jesus delivering presents, being giving a lift by St. Nicholas riding on a raindeer.

Ironically, instead of St. Nicholas, England adopted a Father Christmas figure who was not related to the church. They came up with Father Christmas, a character evolved out of the Roman god Saturn, who was worshipped in England after the Romans invaded in A.D. 43. Father Christmas was portrayed as a large man who wore a scarlet robe lined with fur and a crown of holly, ivy, or mistletoe. Today, Father Christmas visits all the houses on Christmas Eve and fills each child's stocking with presents.

The American Santa Claus is actually a combination of St. Nicholas and Father Christmas, and also includes elements from Norse mythology. He was brought to the United States under the guise of Sinter Klass when the Dutch settled New Amsterdam in 1624. When the British seized the city in 1664, renaming it New York, they brought the character of Father Christmas with them. The two figures merged into Santa Claus, who was then popularized throughout the United States during the 19th century by the writings of Washington Irving and Clement Clarke Moore, and the drawings of Thomas Nast. He created the image of Santa as a white-bearded, pot-bellied, jolly man.