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This persistent legend about Nicholas arises from his charitable activities. According to one account, he secretly gave three bags of gold--or three gold balls--to three young women who lacked dowries, by throwing the gold into their houses at night. The gold happened to land inside the stockings that the women had hung up near their fire hearths to dry.<ref name=NickCtr/><ref name=CathForum>Anonymous, "[http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintn01.htm Patron Saints Index: Nicholas of Myra]," ''[http://www.catholic-forum.com/ The Catholic Community Forum]'', n.d. Retrieved April 16, 2007</ref>

This persistent legend about Nicholas arises from his charitable activities. According to one account, he secretly gave three bags of gold--or three gold balls--to three young women who lacked dowries, by throwing the gold into their houses at night. The gold happened to land inside the stockings that the women had hung up near their fire hearths to dry.<ref name=NickCtr/><ref name=CathForum>Anonymous, "[http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintn01.htm Patron Saints Index: Nicholas of Myra]," ''[http://www.catholic-forum.com/ The Catholic Community Forum]'', n.d. Retrieved April 16, 2007</ref>

=== Multiple Myths of Secret Gift-givers ===

=== Modern allusions ===

Every country in the Western world has a myth about a giver of gifts, who enters homes by stealth, leaves generous gifts, and departs as secretly as he came. In the [[British Isles]] this figure is called "Father Christmas," and in [[France]], ''Père Noël''. The [[Holland|Dutch]] call him ''Sinter Klaas'', which is the literal translation of "Saint Nicholas" in Dutch<ref>Anonymous, [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/noel/angl/stnico.htm Saint Nicholas], [[France|French]] Ministry of Culture. English version retrieved April 16, 2007.</ref><ref name=CT/>--and in the [[United States]], thanks largely to popularizers like the author [[Clement Moore]], he is called "[[Santa Claus]]," a corruption of the Dutch name.<ref>The elaborate myth of Santa Claus' [[North Pole|Arctic]] toy factory and unequaled transport and delivery system probably reflect Americans' confidence in their country's industrial might more than any of the qualities attributed to Nicholas himself.</ref> In [[Germany]] he is known as "Kris Kringle," which is a corruption of the German name ''Christkindl'', literally "Christ child."<ref name=CT/> Perhaps by no accident, "Kris Kringle" is always associated with the cone-shaped "[[Christmas tree]]," or ''Tannenbaum'', which is a German invention that itself traces to a pagan practice that began in that region.

Modern western countries perpetuate a story of a giver of gifts who enters homes by stealth, leaves generous gifts, and departs as secretly as he came. In the [[British Isles]] this figure is called "Father Christmas," and in [[France]], ''Père Noël''. The [[Holland|Dutch]] call him ''Sinter Klaas'', which is the literal translation of "Saint Nicholas" in Dutch<ref>Anonymous, [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/noel/angl/stnico.htm Saint Nicholas], [[France|French]] Ministry of Culture. English version retrieved April 16, 2007.</ref><ref name=CT/>--and in the [[United States]], thanks largely to popularizers like the author [[Clement Moore]], he is called "[[Santa Claus]]," a corruption of the Dutch name.<ref>The elaborate myth of Santa Claus' [[North Pole|Arctic]] toy factory and unequaled transport and delivery system probably reflect Americans' confidence in their country's industrial might more than any of the qualities attributed to Nicholas himself.</ref> In [[Germany]] he is known as "Kris Kringle," which is a corruption of the German name ''Christkindl'', literally "Christ child."<ref name=CT/> Perhaps by no accident, "Kris Kringle" is always associated with the cone-shaped "[[Christmas tree]]," or ''Tannenbaum'', which is a German invention that itself traces to a pagan practice that began in that region.

== References ==

== References ==