So Merry Fat Santa isn't real but...

Okay so the Merry Fat Man known as Santa Claus was invented by Coca Cola in the early 1930s. But to say that means that the man behind it is imaginary and never existed is false! With knowing the true story you can still celebrate his spirit that lives on which is what we did after being too old to believe in Santa Claus. St. Nicholas was a 4th Century Greek Christian Bishop. He was known for giving gifts to the poor, most importantly saving 3 poor girls from going on to having to sell themselves as adults. Traditionally this started in the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Germany. The actual day was originally celebrated on the 6th of December which was the day he was given his name. The date was later changed to Dec. 24-25th because Christians wanted to move children away from Saints and towards Christ. In Germany when my mom was a girl they placed their shoes outside their door on Christmas Eve to have them filled with candy rather than the stockings on the fireplace. The Santa Claus of today was taken from several places and put together as one. Odin of the Norse religion is the real Father Christmas, wearing a long white beard, who rode thru the sky with his eight footed steed during Yule visiting his people with gifts. I learned the second part many years later in adulthood but as children when we got to old to believe in this magical Santa who mysteriously got into our homes to deliver gifts when we were good we were explained about St. Nicholas and how we can still celebrate the spirit of giving that he had for his people. It personally for me helped take away the sting of knowing the man we see on tv flying thru the sky was not real. We even made Jesus a birthday cake on some Christmas Eve which we enjoyed too. Spending that time with our mom and what kid wouldn't like birthday cake for Christmas?! ha.. If you took the time to read and possibly learn something new, thank you. Knowing your history can really help in knowing why we do the things we do and remind ourselves of the spirit of Christmas.