St. Nick's Groove - Nicole C. Mullen

You know, lots of people think that St. Nicholas is just another name for Santa

Claus

But Santa is also called Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, and some other names

But behind all of these names is a boy who lived in what is now western Turkey

about 1700 years ago

His name was Nicholas

Now when Nicholas was a little boy, a plague struck his home town and both his

parents got sick and they died

He went to live with his uncle who was a monk in a monastery, who taught him

all about God and Jesus

Now when Nicholas' parents died, they left him all of their money

But monks are supposed to be poor, so Nicholas resolved to give it all away,

especially to other children in trouble

There’s a wonderful story about three girls who cold not get married because

they had no dowries

Now in those days a girl had to have a big sum of money, or a dowry,

if she was to marry

If she didn’t, she’d be sold as a slave

Nicholas heard of this and he came up with a plan

Late at night he tossed a stocking full of gold coins through the bedroom

window of the oldest daughter

Soon she married a good husband

She said she had the dowry hidden away in her sock

Nicholas again tossed a sock full of money through the window of the second

daughter

She, too, soon married

But when Nicholas crept up to the house with the third sock full of money for

the third daughter, he found all of the windows were shut

So he did what boys sometimes do

He climbed up on the roof and he dropped it down the chimney and it landed in

the girl’s shoes, which were beside the hearth

When she, too, married claiming that her dowry was in her shoes,

people were amazed, and they said to one another, «It's some kind of miracle.»

St. Nicholas was an orphan boy who became a priest and then a bishop,

who loved Jesus and God and gave away all of his wealth to the poor,

and especially to children in trouble