HOME | DD

Description
Saint Nicholas was born on the Ides of March in 270, in the city of Patara in the Roman province of Lycia. He was the Bishop of Myra, a post once held by his uncle, and was a man of great notariety even in his day. A victim of the Diocletian Persecution and later a man held in favor by Emperor Constantine, Saint Nicholas was even present at the Council of Nicaea in 325, where he famously decked the heretic Arius across the face. But Saint Nick is most famously remembered as a giver of gifts and charity. Legend goes that when he came across a poor man who had lost his daughter's dowry money from bad luck and regretted vices, Saint Nick quietly snuck into their house during the night and placed money into their shoes so that the girls wouldn't have to befall a fate worse than death. The Saint was also a staunch advocate for the innocent, speaking out against corruption and violence towards those who didn't deserve it. Which I suppose did not include Arius.

Long after the death of Saint Nicholas, his reputation and stories lived on for centuries. As the people of the Roman Empire's northernmost territories shifted away from their old gods, they equated Saint Nick with the legends previously attributed to the god Odin, specifically the Wild Hunt, a time where Odin would lead his hunting party across the night sky in flying carts to determine the moral character of the people and provide gifts or punishments accordingly. As humanity progressed into the days long after the death of Rome and into the sparkling era of the Renaissance, Saint Nick evolved into a new character. The people of the Low Countries dubbed him Sinterklaas, and envisioned him as a magical gift-giver who continued his tradition of gift giving through breaking-and-entering to all the good children of the land during the winter holidays like Christmas.

Sinterklaas followed his people to the Americas when the Dutch colonized areas like New York in the 1600s, and he remained there long after the English took over the colony for their own. Sinterklaas became a sort of icon for the population of New York, with even writers like Washington Irving including him in his writings of New York's legends by the time Grace found herself amongst the world of the mythical in 1812. But of course, Sinterklaas had a new name he went by for his English-speaking believers in America, and it was the name that Grace would come to know him by the best any time she visited his base up in the frosty north.

The jolly old elf named Santa Claus.

Merry Christmas everybody

Description
Saint Nicholas was born on the Ides of March in 270, in the city of Patara in the Roman province of Lycia. He was the Bishop of Myra, a post once held by his uncle, and was a man of great notariety even in his day. A victim of the Diocletian Persecution and later a man held in favor by Emperor Constantine, Saint Nicholas was even present at the Council of Nicaea in 325, where he famously decked the heretic Arius across the face. But Saint Nick is most famously remembered as a giver of gifts and charity. Legend goes that when he came across a poor man who had lost his daughter's dowry money from bad luck and regretted vices, Saint Nick quietly snuck into their house during the night and placed money into their shoes so that the girls wouldn't have to befall a fate worse than death. The Saint was also a staunch advocate for the innocent, speaking out against corruption and violence towards those who didn't deserve it. Which I suppose did not include Arius.

Long after the death of Saint Nicholas, his reputation and stories lived on for centuries. As the people of the Roman Empire's northernmost territories shifted away from their old gods, they equated Saint Nick with the legends previously attributed to the god Odin, specifically the Wild Hunt, a time where Odin would lead his hunting party across the night sky in flying carts to determine the moral character of the people and provide gifts or punishments accordingly. As humanity progressed into the days long after the death of Rome and into the sparkling era of the Renaissance, Saint Nick evolved into a new character. The people of the Low Countries dubbed him Sinterklaas, and envisioned him as a magical gift-giver who continued his tradition of gift giving through breaking-and-entering to all the good children of the land during the winter holidays like Christmas.

Sinterklaas followed his people to the Americas when the Dutch colonized areas like New York in the 1600s, and he remained there long after the English took over the colony for their own. Sinterklaas became a sort of icon for the population of New York, with even writers like Washington Irving including him in his writings of New York's legends by the time Grace found herself amongst the world of the mythical in 1812. But of course, Sinterklaas had a new name he went by for his English-speaking believers in America, and it was the name that Grace would come to know him by the best any time she visited his base up in the frosty north.

The jolly old elf named Santa Claus.

Merry Christmas everybody