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Show Christmas has many traditions "The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. . . " It's not known how this tradition tra-dition got its start, but there is a lovely legend about the custom's beginning. It seems that in the town where the "first" Saint Nicholas Nich-olas lived, there was a merchant mer-chant who had three daughters who were not married. In those days, the 4th century, a maiden maid-en had to have a dowry before she could marry. And the merchant mer-chant was bankrupt. Nicholas, who was then a boy, heard of their plight. He went to the house late one night and dropped three bags of gold down the chimney. They fell into the girls' stockings stock-ings which were hanging by the fireplace to dry. The gold was enough for the girls' dowry so they were married and lived happily ever after taking care of their poor father as well. |