As most of us are sure to know, Santa Claus was not a fat, jolly old man in a red suit. He was St. Nicholas, a tough old archbishop in the port town of Myra (now Turkey), which was full of sailors, bars, and prostitutes. In the midst of it all, Archbishop Nick was respected (some say feared) and he garnered a reputation for keeping a lid on corruption and immorality, and for helping the very weakest in that very busy port town.
What led to his eventual fame was how he tossed gold coins into a poor man's house who didn't have the money (dowry) to marry off his three daughters. He was poor enough that, in those days, his family could be sold into slavery because of debt, and his daughters sold into prostitution. Nicholas (Greek, meaning Niki=victory + laos=people) repeated this act for the man's second daughter, and then again for the poor man's third and last daughter.
The story continues that Nicholas put the gold into a stocking and tossed it through the window of the house where it landed in someone's shoes that were drying in front of the fireplace. It further says that the poor man saw Nicholas the third time he did this, and then told the whole town afterwards. The Archbishops reputation continued to spread!
Nicholas was obviously trying to not let his charity be seen, for God says it is enough that He alone sees it. Well, it didn't work out very well as Nicholas soon became St. Nick which then became Santa Claus (Germany, middle ages) - and now he's the most famous man on the planet. Nice try, Nick.
Merry Christmas!
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