You know, lots of people think that St. Nicholas is just another name for Santa Claus.
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But Santa is also called Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, and some other names.
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But behind all of these names is a boy who lived in what is now western Turkey about 1700 years ago.
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His name was Nicholas.
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Now when Nicholas was a little boy, a plague struck his home town and both his parents got sick and they died.
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He went to live with his uncle who was a monk in a monastery, who taught him all about God and Jesus.
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Now when Nicholas' parents died, they left him all of their money.
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But monks are supposed to be poor, so Nicholas resolved to give it all away, especially to other children in trouble.
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There's a wonderful story about three girls who cold not get married because they had no dowries.
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Now in those days a girl had to have a big sum of money, or a dowry, if she was to marry.
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If she didn't, she'd be sold as a slave.
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Nicholas heard of this and he came up with a plan.
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Late at night he tossed a stocking full of gold coins through the bedroom window of the oldest daughter.
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Soon she married a good husband.
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She said she had the dowry hidden away in her sock.
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Nicholas again tossed a sock full of money through the window of the second daughter.
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She, too, soon married.
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But when Nicholas crept up to the house with the third sock full of money for the third daughter, he found all of the windows were shut.
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So he did what boys sometimes do.
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He climbed up on the roof and he dropped it down the chimney and it landed in the girl's shoes, which were beside the hearth.
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When she, too, married claiming that her dowry was in her shoes, people were amazed, and they said to one another, "It's some kind of miracle."
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St. Nicholas was an orphan boy who became a priest and then a bishop, who loved Jesus and God and gave away all of his wealth to the poor, and especially to children in trouble.
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St. Nick's Groove
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| Nicole C. Mullen |
