Once in a letter, many years ago, Virginia asked.....
Where the heck did Santa even come from anyway?


Well Virginia, sit here on my knee and I'll tell you....In the 4th Century, there was a Turkish Bishop named Nicholas (from the town of Myra) who gave presents of gold to a poor family with 3 unwed daughters, so they could afford marriage and avoid going into prostitution. (At the time, if a girl had no "nest egg", she was basically unmarriageable)
After his death he was cannonised (became a Saint) who represented unselfish giving. Also, he would later become the patron saint of the Danish trading fleets that explored the World in the 16 and 17oos; the Dutch sailors would export the tales of the man they called "Sinter Claus", all around the World. During the US civil war, a young artist named Thomas Nast redesigned and renamed him to the now familiar Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) and used him as a way to send comforting messages to the soldiers in the field; after the war Nast further refined him into the character we now know so well (No matter what the propaganda from the Coca-Cola company says about having created him themselves). As for the elves and reindeer (Which should be properly called caribou, btw), this comes mainly from the poem "A visit from St Nick" (It was the night before Christmas and all through the house....) So, Santa Claus was once a real person who was celebrated for his generosity, but, today, he's just a big fat corporate fraud! :thumbsdow

Plus, people are now seeking revenge by groping him, throwing pies at him, and knocking him out with blunt objects. :(

Thomas Nast's Santa Claus

Plus, people are now seeking revenge by groping him, throwing pies at him, and knocking him out with blunt objects. :(
Yes, it was your thread on that which inspired me to write this one :D

One thing i forgot to mention, during the US Civil War, Nast had Santa clothed in the stars of the American flag! (He was for the North, apparently!)

^ A Yankee Santa (lol!)

Enjoyed the story!

Thanks Ann....here's a follow up about the war over Santa's bones, several cities claim to have the Saint's remains, but, no one knows for certain:

The Venetians sailed to Myra in 1116 and not only brought back what they said were the true bones of St. Nicholas but the body of his uncle as well. When the Russians arrived centuries later to restore the church, they looted another sacrophagus and sent the bones to St. Petersburg as the real St. Nicholas. The French claim a part of one of his fingers, and the Turks not to be outdone on their own territory, have a reliquary with some of St. Nicholas's bones in their new museum in Antalya. In 1972, in an ecumenical gesture, the Archbishop of Bari presented a few fragments from the skull in Bari to the Greek Orthodox community in America. Some of these fragments were placed in a reliquary in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas at 196th Street and Northern Boulevard in Flushing, N.Y.; the rest are in a reliquary in the Greek Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity at 319 East 74th Street in Manhattan.

We counted six sarcophagi in the church at Demre, plus one in the courtyard. It seems likely that as each raiding party arrived, it cracked open another sarcophagus and claimed St. Nicholas's bones. Who was correct and which tomb was his is impossible to say.


extracted from:
http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/fasts_feasts/christmas_in_turkey.htm

Anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson got her hands on x-rays and detailed measurements of his skull (taken by a Vatican anatomist in the 1950’s) and applied modern forensic techniques to produce the reconstruction below (large pic). The smaller pic is an old painting possibly from life, you'll notice they are remarkably similar (same relative facial shape, cheekbones and especially the forehead), leading one to think that the skull Ms. Wilkinson used was INDEED, that of theTRUE St. Nicholas!!! (and not one of the falsely claimed skulls <see the previous post )
:eek:

:bump

And so, Saint Nick gets in his sleigh and.........ooops! Wrong St Nick, this thread is about the REAL man! ;)