The figure known around the world today as Santa Claus is regularly depicted as a rotund man who wears a red suit, runs a toy factory staffed by elves and flies the world once a year with a reindeer-drawn sleigh to deliver toys to good girls and boys who have made it onto Santa’s Nice List.

This image is known by millions of children in every part of the world. But how did it get started?

Our modern Santa was inspired by a real individual who was born in the area of the world now known as Turkey. Nicholas was born around 280 AD and was the only son of Epiphanus and Johanna, wealthy Christian parents who died in an epidemic when Nicholas was young. He was then raised by his uncle, who was the bishop of Patara.

Following the devout Christian beliefs of his parents and uncle, Nicholas gave away his inheritance to the poor and devoted his life to helping children and the poor.

When Saint Nicholas died, the anniversary of his death on December 6 became known as Saint Nicholas Day, a time of feasting and celebrating. But Saint Nicholas’ name and good deeds did not die with him. His legend spread far and wide. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him and because of the many miracles attributed to him, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker.

He was known by several other names, too. He is also known as Nicholas of Myra because he was the bishop of Myra, and his relics are in an Italian city named Bari, so he is also known as Nicholas of Bari.

The Dutch called him Sinter Klaas, a short version of Sint Nikolaas, and brought the name and the legend with them to the United States.

Saint Nicholas became the patron saint of New York City, and was mentioned in a book published by Washington Irving on Saint Nicholas Day.

But it was Clement Moore’s poem, “The Night Before Christmas,” that created Saint Nicholas’ image as “a jolly old elf” with a “little round belly, that shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.”

That image was strengthened by political cartoonist Thomas Nast, who used the jolly character in Moore’s poem for a series of cartoons he began drawing in 1863. In the cartoons that appeared in Harper’s Weekly, Nash drew Santa Claus with a beard and fur clothing. These images helped created the modern image of Santa. The illustrator also invented the elves, Santa’s wife and the idea that Santa lived at the North Pole

Today Saint Nicholas’ legacy continues to live in the hearts and minds of children who believe in the kindly gift-giving Santa Claus, who keeps track of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice and then rewards good children with gifts on Christmas Eve.

Parents can continue to keep the legend of Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus alive with printable kids santa letters from Christmas Letter Tips.com.

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Shopping for your parents can be really hard; finding gifts that they’ll really enjoy and that you can afford is rarely easy. Parents usually have money to spend throughout the year, so when they want something, they can buy it – this can often make it difficult by the time it’s Christmas.

One really good method for finding Christmas gifts for your mum and dad is to find something that they wouldn’t even have thought of, but that they’d almost certainly like. So to try and help out, here’s a couple of ideas for some great presents for you parents.

An ideal start is the Retro Sweet Chewbz, available for £11.99 from most good online retailers. Most parents will remember their childhood years very fondly, and will react very well to anything that helps them remember those years. Well you can help them do that by transporting them back twenty years with the tastes and smells of the sweets they used to enjoy as a kid. This is more or less certain to go down well with the folks and would make a great stocking filler. The Retro Sweets aren’t more suited to one gender than another, making them ideal if you’re trying to find gifts for him or her.

If it’s specifically mum you’re shopping for, you could opt for the Bath Caddy, which you should be able to pick up for around £24.99 from most good online stores. Millions of mums all over the country enjoy relaxing in the bath with a good book, so there’s probably little more annoying for them than dropping the book in the bath, or continually soaking the pages as they hold it. Well that can be a thing of the past with the Bath Caddy, which features a secure book holder with adjustable tilt, a swivelling wine glass holder (two actually) and fits any size of bath. So if you’re looking for gifts for her, the Bath Caddy is surely going to be a good option.