[Sca-cooks] Half an outcast! St. Nick?

[Suey]

Phil Troy wrote: ". . .thinking Santa Claus . . .I don't have any 
evidence that  there's an old fat man with a white beard (actually I 
never though of him as all that old, or even all that fat). how far back 
does the image of santa claus or saint nicholas go."
    St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra, a Greek colony, born in Patara, 
Lycia in the 3rd Century and supposedly died on 6 December 343 in Myra. 
You can find out about him at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas  - among other sites.
    My image of him is not fat as famine hit the island during his life 
time. As he lived to be quite old he could have had a white beard. The 
cited article states he was "barely five feet in height (while not 
exactly small, still shorter than average, even for his time) and had a 
broken nose."
    He was popular during the Middle Ages as seen by the number of 
churches bearing his name throughout Europe and of course recognized as 
the patron saint on Christmas giving rise to 'bishop boy celebration' or 
the 'king of the fava' feasts in Spain when all kinds of jests were 
performed in his honor especially in royal courts on Christmas day 
particularly.
    Early icons portray him as skinny with a dark brown or black beard. 
As I recall in medieval German images of him he wore a long red robe 
lined with white fur while in Spain he remained more or less Greek 
improving burlap-like tunics with silk robes (thanks to the  silk 
factory in Cordoba founded during the first half of the 9th Century). 
When he moved to the North Pole and acquired rosy cheeks, a big belly, 
an impotent wife and a sleigh guided by reindeer is beyond me. Certainly 
as per late 19th Century American literature was him living there. Was 
he married by then? I don't remember great grandmother commenting on 
that or the role of Orthodox bishops for that matter. I do remember from 
pictures in books of her era around the house. His "broken nose" seems 
to have become swollen during the beginning of the 20th century or was 
that because of the jiggers of whiskey traditionally left out for him at 
the family homestead? As far as I know he did not practice prohibition 
in the late 1920's along with grandfather, so why should they now? 
According to mother Rudolph, Santa's reindeer captain, did not arrive 
until the late 1940's no thanks to Bing Crosby. She hated that song!
Susan