St. Nicholas Day: December 6

St. Nicholas Day: The Original Santa Claus

While Christmas gets doorbusters and carolers and fake snow on shopfront windows, while the actual St. Nicholas gets a Google doodle on his birthday... at least on Google Germany. OK, kids, December 6 is Santa Claus' birthday. Not December 25.

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St. Nicholas Day: Google Doodle for December 6

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uploaded by Jordan Yerman

St. Nicholas (Nikolaos of Myra), born in what's now Turkey, became the model for Santa Claus due to his habit of secretly giving gifts. St. Nicholas became associated with chimneys due to one storied event: Nikolaos was helping a poor man raise enough money for a dowry for his daughters, but didn't want the man to be embarassed by publicly receiving charity. So St. Nicholas threw a bag of money through the man's window. He did this again a second night. On the third night, the man waited by the window to see who's chucking sacks of coins through his window. In order not to be seen, St. Nicholas dropped the third bag of money down the man's chimney.

St. Nicholas: From Greece to Italy

Italian sailors stole St. Nicholas' bones and reinterred them in Bari, Italy. Now, modern-day Turkey wants them back.