Well, howdy! This here is Punkin Nightshade speakin to you for The MonsterGrrls' 25 Days Of Christmas, and today I am goin to talk with you about old Santy Claus. Now there is a whole bunch of movin pictures and whatnot that has been made about Santy Claus, but I am not talkin about them. Today I am talkin about the man himself.Santy Claus as folks know him today growed out of a real-life feller named Saint Nicholas of Myra, who was a Christian bishop from the 4th century. This feller was real generous to folks, and was all time givin gifts of money in secret to the poor. The most famous story told about old Saint Nicholas is that there was a feller who had him three daughters, but was too poor to buy them a proper dowry so they could get married up on someone. The way things was in them days, this sort of thing meant that they was goin to be what we will call naughty ladies for the sake of little ones who might be readin this, cause there wasn't no one to take care of them no other way. Well, Saint Nick heard about this feller and
decides he's gonna help him, but of course he don't want to embarrass him no more than he probly already was, seein as how it was lookin like his daughters was goin to be naughty ladies. So Saint Nick snuck round to the feller's house at night and threw three bags of gold through the window, one for each girl, and so they was set with a dowry and that was all right. Now there's a whole bunch of ways this story is told, but to show what Frankie would call an interestin parallel, one of them versions got him droppin the gold bags down the feller's chimbley, and the girls had all hung up their stockins to dry by the fireplace, and what does the gold do but fall into the stockins. So it is from this interestin parallel that we can see how folks started hangin up stockins for Santy Claus to fill.
Because he was such a generous feller, Saint Nick became a patron saint of folks what needed help. Durin the night of December 6th, back in the medieval times when all them knights and kings and such was runnin around, there was nuns who would get up together and sneak round to houses of poor folk and leave them baskets of food and such, and one can see how this caught on with folks since it was much more interestin to have somebody sneakin round leavin somethin rather than takin it. Another story about Saint Nick and younguns has to do with this island what had them a terrible famine goin on, and this evil old butcher stole him three younguns and tried to cure them up, goin to sell them as meat. Well, Saint Nick happened on this island takin care of hungry folk and not only figured out what the butcher was doin but performed him a miracle and resurrected them poor little younguns by prayin for them. So the Church went on and made him the patron saint of children too.
Now, no doubt you are wondrin now we got us a jolly old feller in a white beard and a red suit out of this. Well, the Christian faith had a strong influence over the world, so a lot of traditions among folks got changed up some when Christianity came on. This is not really nothin new, as folks are usually showin their faith and beliefs through some kind of action or ritual. But when people started regular celebratin the birth of the 
Christ child at the end of the year, a lot of these rituals got all mixed together into a kind of symbol for the good cheer and generosity of Christmas, and that symbol was what become Santy Claus. In England, the English had them a feller called Father Christmas, and this feller was wrote into Mr. Charles Dickens' book A Christmas Carol as the Ghost Of Christmas Present what appears to old Scrooge. Here in America, most of them early colonists what come over from Europe was Dutch, and the Dutch had them a feller like old Saint Nick called Sinterklaas. But the thing what really got Santy Claus started as we know it today was a poem by Clement C. Moore, called "A Visit From Saint Nicholas." Mr. Moore must have read up on a lot of these old ways, cause a lot of em made their way into today's Santy Claus.
Nowadays folks has sometimes been critical of Old Saint Nick. Some folks say that too much of the Christmas season is about Santy Claus, and that we don't spend much time on the Christ child no more, which was what got the whole holiday goin. But I say that Santy Claus is natural a reflection of what the Christ child come down from above to tell us about, and that is love. The legend of Santy Claus is based on a feller what works hard all the year to make gifts for folks on a holiday that comes at the darkest time of the year, all out of love for mankind and younguns, and don't charge nothin for it, and don't expect nothin in return. And from all I have heard and seen, that Christ child growed up to do somethin like that: to tell us that we ought to be generous and kind to each other, and love and forgive each other. Not just on Christmas, but all year round, cause that is a right smart. But of course that is natural just my opinion.So anyway, this here is about Santy Claus, and I am done for this time. We hope you have a holiday of much good cheer, and that you will come round next time for The MonsterGrrls' 25 Days Of Christmas. Blessings be on all of you!
Sincerely,
Petronella Nightshade
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