The 'real' Saint Nicholas was a 4th century Bishop of Myra associated with many miraculous events of varying historical attestability. My favourite of these for sheer exuberant oddness has to be the one about the three young boys, murdered by a butcher during a time of famine, chopped up ( chopped up! ) and pickled in brine for seven years ( seven years! ) before being miraculously restored in answer to the bishop's intercessory prayers. A 16th century French song on the St. Nicholas Centre website tells the tale in the good old bluntly gruesome way of good old-fashioned folk rhyme. Meanwhile our modern songs have tragically watered down the contemporary hybrid Santa character beyond recognition, blandly censoring all of the most interesting bits of his biography. Well! I for one won't stand for it a moment longer ... HITHER COMETH SAINT NICHOLAS OF MYRA ...