Today is St. Nicholas’ day! 6th December is still the main day for gift-giving and merry-making in much of Europe. Many feel that simple gift-giving in early Advent helps preserve a Christmas Day focus on the Christ Child. Saint Nick himself has quite the split personality, having evolved over the years to fit in with all sorts of different traditions. In his mortal life he was a Greek bishop noted for his Christian spirit of giving. One legend tells of his throwing three bags of gold through a window to rescue the girls there from a life of poverty. The coins landed in the socks and shoes laid out by the fire to warm. This, along with his generous reputation, probably led to the tradition of asking him for gifts, specifically in a hung stocking. Unfortunately, some might say, the round bags of gold have morphed into oranges in most peoples stockings nowadays!
Santa Claus as we know him is largely thanks to the poem ‘The Night Before Christmas’, which describes him in fair detail, and of course Coca-Cola for giving him his red suit. In order to get round all the children in the world on Christmas Eve this year, he will have to travel 221 million miles at an average speed of 1279 miles a second, 6,395 times the speed of sound. For all those of us who are exhausted just rushing around getting ready for Christmas, that is a sobering thought!
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