Nicholas was the son of a wealthy family in the region, but he would stand out for his simplicity and service towards others. His father wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a merchant in the Adriatic Sea, while his mother pretended to be a priest like his uncle, the bishop of Mira.

When his parents died attending to the sick in an epidemic, he would inherit an immense fortune that he decides to divide among the poor. After visiting Holy Land, he would return to Mira where he would be ordained as a priest. Later, when his uncle died he would be chosen to replace him as bishop.

The little that is known of his life, contrasts sharply with the universality of his fame and cult, with the popularity he enjoys in East and West, even today, and with the abundance of legends created around him. It was so popular in ancient times, that more than two thousand temples around the world would be consecrated, it would also become the patron saint of Greece, Turkey and Russia.

He is credited with a miracle that would give him fame and with which the story of Santa Claus would begin. According to historians, a ruined father did not possess the necessary dowry to marry his three daughters, even though in other sources consulted they claim that given the father's precariousness, he would have been forced to prostitute them. Nicholas would slip some coins through the chimney of the family home to alleviate this unfortunate situation and rescue the girls. The coins would fall into the woolen socks that the three sisters had hung in the fireplace to dry them. From this event, the idea would arise that this legendary character was sliding through the chimneys, leaving his gifts in the hung socks.

In 1087, the relics of St. Nicholas would be transferred to the Italian city of Bari, when a group of Christians managed to secretly remove them from Turkish territory where they were, before the invasion of Muslim forces. In this city so many miracles would be obtained by begging the intercession of the saint, that his popularity would spread rapidly throughout the European continent.

Subsequently, in 1624 Dutch immigrants founded the city of New Amsterdam on the northeast coast of the United States, in what is now known as New York, carrying with it all its customs and myths, including the Feast of St. Nicholas or Sinterklaas, a holiday that is celebrated on December 5 and 6, and in which gifts are given to children.

In 1809, the renowned American writer Washington Irving publishes a New York Story told by Dietrich Knickerbocker, a humorous and satirical story that would have a great reception by the public, and in which the Dutch word deforms Sinterklaas, replacing it with the English-speaking version Santa Claus. A decade later, the poet Clement Clarke Moore would publish a poem where it would give shape to the current myth of Santa Claus, based on the character of Irving. That poem would mention an agile Santa Claus as an elf, and that would give toys to children on the eve of Christmas transporting in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer.

Harper's Weekly

In 1863 Santa Claus would adopt his new physiognomy of bearded fat man with whom we know him today, thanks to the American cartoonist of German origin Thomas Nast, who would design this character for his Christmas strips in Harpers Weekly. His new clothes would have influence of the bishops of other times and without any relation with Saint Nicholas of Bari.

In the mid-19th century, the history of the American Santa Claus would arrive in England and from there to France, where it would merge with the french Bonhomme Noël (Christmas Man), giving rise to the Papá Noel we know in Latin America.

At the end of the 19th century, from a commercial of Lomen Company, an American company in the refrigeration sector, the belief would be established that Santa Claus comes from the North Pole, and reindeer and sled as your means of transport.

In 1902, in the book The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Lyman Frank Baum, a renowned American writer of children's literature, the story of how Santa Claus gains immortality, as well as his title, originates of saint.

In 1931, Coca-Cola would hire Haddon Sundblom, an advertising artist who redesigns Santa Claus, drawing him as a fat and cheerful man with white hair and dressed in red and white, colors that had already been used by other illustrators, but that coincidentally combined with the characteristic colors of the company. He would be inspired by his friend Lou Prentiss, a retired salesman who served as a model for the first few years, even Sundblom would incorporate a Mrs. Claus, based on his own wife.

Santa Claus

Sundblom would be responsible for creating all the illustrations of Santa Claus that the popular soft drinks company used between 1931 and 1966 in all of their Christmas campaigns around the globe, and after the artist's death in 1976, his work has continued to spread constantlye.

Bibliographical Sources:

• Papá Noel
• La verdadera historia detrás de Papá Noel
• How Santa brought Coca-Cola in from the cold
• San Nicolás de Bari – el verdadero Santa Claus
• La verdadera historia del origen del "Santa Claus"
• Así era Santa Claus antes de 'fichar' por Coca-Cola: ni rojo, ni gordo

If you liked this Post, I invite you to support my work by following my account @ manuelgil64 leaving your comments and upvoting

Thanks!

---

Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://manuelgil64steemit.epizy.com/wp/2019/12/07/the-story-of-santa-claus/

---