| You know, lots of people think that St. Nicholas is just another name for Santa
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| Claus
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| But Santa is also called Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, and some other names
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| But behind all of these names is a boy who lived in what is now western Turkey
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| about 1700 years ago
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| His name was Nicholas
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| Now when Nicholas was a little boy, a plague struck his home town and both his
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| parents got sick and they died
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| He went to live with his uncle who was a monk in a monastery, who taught him
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| all about God and Jesus
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| Now when Nicholas' parents died, they left him all of their money
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| But monks are supposed to be poor, so Nicholas resolved to give it all away,
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| especially to other children in trouble
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| There’s a wonderful story about three girls who cold not get married because
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| they had no dowries
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| Now in those days a girl had to have a big sum of money, or a dowry,
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| if she was to marry
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| If she didn’t, she’d be sold as a slave
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| Nicholas heard of this and he came up with a plan
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| Late at night he tossed a stocking full of gold coins through the bedroom
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| window of the oldest daughter
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| Soon she married a good husband
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| She said she had the dowry hidden away in her sock
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| Nicholas again tossed a sock full of money through the window of the second
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| daughter
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| She, too, soon married
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| But when Nicholas crept up to the house with the third sock full of money for
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| the third daughter, he found all of the windows were shut
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| So he did what boys sometimes do
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| He climbed up on the roof and he dropped it down the chimney and it landed in
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| the girl’s shoes, which were beside the hearth
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| When she, too, married claiming that her dowry was in her shoes,
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| people were amazed, and they said to one another, «It's some kind of miracle.»
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| St. Nicholas was an orphan boy who became a priest and then a bishop,
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| who loved Jesus and God and gave away all of his wealth to the poor,
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| and especially to children in trouble |