On December 6, all children waited anxiously the arrival of Saint Nicholas, the old bearded man with ragged clothes. Everyone put their shoes outside the door in hope that they would be filled with candy and chocolate.
Many did not know the story of Saint Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra from Turkey. The story goes that he had become the symbol of anonymous gift giving when he donated three sacks of gold to an old man whose daughters could not marry because he was so poor, he could not afford dowries. St. Nicholas threw a bag of gold each night into the old man’s house through an open window. When the story was told in colder climates, St. Nicholas dropped the gold through the chimney.