Santa and his older colleague

Dear...

Today is December 6. I was born in the Netherlands and December 6 is a special holiday for it is St. Nicholas day. St. Nicholas from Myra was a Catholic bishop who lived in the 4th century AD in a province of Byzantine Empire Anatolia, now in Turkey.  He was famous for his generosity especially to the poor. In European countries like Belgium and Germany, but especially the Netherlands, St. Nicholas was depicted as a person with a long white beard and wearing a red cape of traditional Catholic Bishop clothes.

All the kids are led to believe that St. Nicholas still lives in Spain and that once a year he and his aides come over the Netherlands in a steam boat to celebrate his birthday on December 6. The kids present on the night before his birthday.  It is the children's belief that St Nicholas rides with his white horse over the roofs of each family's house and that he delivers presents by having his aides climb through the chimney. St Nicholas keeps a book with records of the children's behavior and all the kids believe that you only get presents if you behaved well.

Since most of you are not Dutch and might not have heard of St. Nicholas, you probably think this story looks incredibly similar with the story of Santa Claus. Even the name looks the same. Well, that is because the legend of Santa Claus is derived from St. Nicholas. He became Santa Claus in the 16th century due to the reformation, where reformers like Luther wanted to ban the belief in the 'holy' people of the Catholic church (St. Nicholas was considered 'holy' by the Catholics).

St. Nicholas day is still celebrated and many children in the Netherlands received presents today and yesterday. Now Santa is not really a Dutch thing, so he won't bring presents on the 25th, although I guess my kids are lucky since they grew up in the Netherlands and in the US, so both Santa and his older colleague, St. Nicholas both pay them a visit each year.

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"Be inspired and you shall inspire." ~JD