The reputation of St Nicholas is not unjustified. Under the Roman emporer Diocletian he was persecuted for his acts of brazen bravery in helping children. In the town of Myra of which he was the Bishop, he arranged to pay the dowry for young girls who would have otherwise been sold into prostitution. This perhaps is the reason of why he is associated with gift giving and hence Christmas.
However...
He died on Dec 6, 345AD and St Nicholas' Day is December 6. Hmm, something doesn't add up here. A quick look through my book of Saints Days by United Catholic Press (yes I do own such a critter for the express purpose of debunking these things) and published in 1874, well before commerciality took over. Has him associated as the patron saint of prisoners and seafarers.
What gives?
What did he actually do to earn the association with Christmas? Quite frankly and even after a bit of research I have no idea. Certainly the myth extends back beyond Elizabethan times but to be brutally honest... who knows?
One thing that is certain is that Commercialism has turned what perhaps was a good idea of having "saints", which were meant to be heroes in the church; extolling the virtues that we shoudl aspire to, is that those ideas of saints have been corrupted for commercial gain. As pointless as St Valentine is for selling cards and chocolates and St Patrick is for selling copious amounts of fermented vegetable produce, St Nicholas was taked onto for the purposes of selling... everything under the guise of "goodwill toward men".
What the whole thing shows is that when you remove Christ from his own holiday, it like all the other commercialised saints days becomes hollow and empty. Admittedly the Catholic Church stole the festival of Saturnalia in the first place, but the original intentions were noble, it's just that the "pagans" have stolen it back again.
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