Ho Ho… Who?
Find me someone on the planet who doesn’t know about Santa Claus. I dare you. Obviously I don’t mean babies, but anybody in mainstream, modern society, even people who don’t believe in him, most likely are familiar with his legend or have seen his visage somewhere.
But who was Saint Nicholas, really?
Turns out the man behind one of the world’s biggest holidays is a lot more mysterious than you thought, and there’s much more to him than the North Pole and presents.
Source: Twitter @videozard
Start the slideshow below to learn 4 of the strangest things you never knew about Santa Claus, then SHARE the truth!
4. Patron Saint of Prostitutes
Source: Twitter @amhaunted
Yup. Some people consider jolly old Saint Nick to be the patron saint of prostitutes, although officially he’s just the patron saint of sailors, brewers, merchants, pawnbrokers, and some other professions around the world.
The story comes from tales that he once donated large amounts of his money to the three daughters of a poor man so that they would have a dowry to marry. If he hadn’t helped them, they would have been sold off as prostitutes.
3. He Was Super Short
Source: Twitter @keshuvko
Most of Saint Nicholas’s relics are buried together in Italy, and in 2005, forensic scientists took samples of his remains in order to reconstruct how he may have looked. Turns out he was barely five feet tall, and he had a broken nose. Poor Santa.