Been doing some reading on Santa Claus. It is actually an extremely interesting topic.

[antiquie]

4. And now the anecdote of three-men-in-a-tub with Sinter Claes...

I was being lazy.

Soon after, Nicholas moved to Myra and was appointed bishop. Attendance lists identify him as number 151 of the 300 bishops at the council of Nicaea, the world's first ecumenical council. In one well-documented incident, Nicholas saved three innocent soldiers from beheading on the orders of a judge. In a dream, he told Emperor Constantine to spare some other innocents.

But it was generosity that made his name. Any day could be Christmas Day for the bishop of Myra. When famine loomed, he forced captains of wheat ships bound for Alexandria each to leave behind 100 hogsheads of corn and then magically replenished their stocks. He squeezed a huge tax cut from the emperor.

On his travels, he saved drowning sailors, rescued a kidnapped boy and brought back from the dead a cheating debtor run over by a chariot. But one final miracle sealed his reputation. Visiting an innkeeper who had murdered, sliced and pickled three infant boys in a tub of pork, Nicholas made the sign of the cross. Out jumped the boys, healthy and pink

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http://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,414584,00.html