It is considered polite for the family to set out a treat of milk and cookies, for his snack, and perhaps a tidbit for the reindeer as well. He enters each house by the chimney, fills the residents' stockings (left hanging on the mantle for his attention) with the gifts and toys he brought, and then leaves the same way he came in. You might hear the sound of some Snowy Sleigh Bells as well. His vehicle is a flying sleigh pulled by eight reindeer named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen (with an option on a ninth, in the form of Rudolph, on nights with poor visibility). These elves in their workshop produce toys year-round and every Christmas Eve they load them into an improbably roomy sack which Santa carries as he sets out to deliver them to all the good boys and girls of the world. Nick was Greek, from a city in what is now Turkey) and oversees a large workshop staffed by elves (diminutive commercial-friendly elves, not tall proud, Tolkien-type elves - D&D players will see more of a resemblance to gnomes) who are often far Older Than They Look.

He lives at the North Pole (or in Lapland, or in Spain, or somewhere else depending on your culture - the original St. Santa is universally known as a festively overweight old man with a long white or silver beard, who wears a red suit, with white trim a matching cap, (originally a red bishop's robe and camauro ), black boots, and a vast black belt worn across his belly. Nicholas, according to which he secretly threw gold into the house of a poor man by night so the man would not sell his daughters into prostitution. The habit of distributing gifts attributed to all these legends is ultimately derived from a legend about St. Note that in several countries in Europe, Sinterklaas and Santa Claus are now considered two entirely different legends, each with their own elaborate holiday. In the Netherlands, the black companions are nowadays portrayed as St. In the original stories, Sinterklaas was accompanied by black slaves these have become demons ( The Krampus) in German-speaking culture, and friendly elves in the United States.

Nicholas', who comes down the chimney on the 5th/6th of December) and the imagery of the Saint in question carried over to his North Pole incarnation. The Santa Claus legend is based largely on the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas (a hastily pronounced Sint-Nicolaas or 'St. Nicholas ( popularly known by its opening line, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas). Nicholas of Myra and various other seasonal folk heroes, Santa and all of his most famous traits were officially codified by the classic 1823 poem A Visit from St.

Developed in the United States as an amalgam of the story of St. Santa Claus is the embodiment of Christmas and, since the late 19th / early 20th centuries, one of the most famous legends in the world.

Santa claus