It's your feast day, St. Nicholas! Too bad nobody in the US has any frickin' clue who you are. So I thought I'd post a few sentences on my blog about you, if you don't mind. And if you do, well, let's be honest, you're dead so you will not be shooting me an email complaint.

Basically St. Nicholas was a Bishop in Turkey in the third century and he had a reputation for secret gift-giving. He was never canonized (made into a saint) but is remembered as such by people all over the European world. The tradition eventually developed where children would leave socks (stockings) outside on the night of December 5 and St. Nick would come by and drop gifts in them for the children. So you can pick up on that tradition.

His feast day in the Christian calendar in December 6th, several weeks before Christmas. In the Netherlands and Belgium he is called "Sinterklaas" and this tradition came over with Dutch immigrants to New York City during the American colonial period. It is believed that this tradition was expanded and became prominent as Santa Claus as an acceptable non-English tradition in the newly-formed United States. A good list of the stories and ideas that became today's "Santa Claus" is in the American origins section of his Wikipedia article.

My basic point in sharing this Wiki's worth of knowledge is simply this: we Americans do a great job destroying historical/mythical characters. Can you imagine an old, white-bearded man in a bishop's cloak drinking a Coca-Cola with polar bears? Didn't think so.

Just keep in mind the historical importance of the Christian calendar from time to time and check out the lesser feasts and festivals on Wikipedia or other sources: you can learn a lot about church history and heritage!