Christmas Card – St. Nicholas The Original Santa Claus – folds to 5x7" – With Envelope – 1 / 10 / 50 / 100

The original Santa Claus is St. Nicholas. Santa means Saint, and Claus is a short version of Nicholas. He was a 4th Century bishop in Asia Minor (Turkey), known for his kindness and generosity. Reportedly, he helped three sisters who were so poor they couldn't get married because they had no dowery. St. Nicholas threw three bags of gold, or apples of gold, into the window of their house-or some say down their chimney. That's where the idea of Santa traveling down chimneys comes from. It was the giving of gifts-along with his Feast Day being in December-that allowed his story to transform into the red-suited Saint (Santa) Claus we now associate with Christmas. He died December 6, 343 AD, and his Feast Day is widely celebrated as a holiday in its own right. He is one of the Patron Saints of children. A fragment of a bone from his shrine has been carbon-dated to precisely his 4th Century. This lovely Victorian picture was made by Heinrich Leflter, an Austrian Catholic primarily known as a