春暖花开圣诞老人（英文Santa Claus）是西方神话传说中的人物，在传说中西方圣诞节前夜时悄悄赠送礼物给小孩子，是耶稣基督诞辰瞻礼即西方圣诞节的代表角色之一。他普遍被认为是基督教的圣人圣·尼古拉斯（Saint Nicholas）的衍生形象，圣诞老人的由来或与一种被称为毒蝇伞的红白相间蘑菇有关、圣诞老人的故事在西方也广为流传。Santa Claus is a character in Western myths and legends. He quietly gave gifts to children during Christmas Eve in the legend. It is one of the representative roles of Western Christmas in the ceremony of Jesus Christ ’s birthday. He is generally considered to be a derivative of the Christian sage Saint Nicholas. The origin of Santa Claus is related to a red and white mushroom called a poisonous fly umbrella.
圣诞老人图片
圣诞老人的由来 The origin of Santa
11世纪末来自意大利的宗教士兵将Nicholas圣人尼古拉的遗物从小亚细亚带到意大利，并在港口城市巴里Bari建造了一座教堂来纪念他。很快世界各地的基督教徒纷至沓来朝圣这位圣人。这些朝圣者将圣人Nicholas的故事带回他们的本土，所以有关圣诞老人的传说在各个国家都各具特色。
12世纪欧洲出现了圣人Nicholas纪念日，以互赠礼物和慈善活动为主。
荷兰殖民者来到美洲时，将他们的Sintirklass主教也带了去，Sintirklass身着红袈裟，骑着一匹白马。Sintirklass的美国形象后来逐渐演变成一个快乐的老精灵。起初美国作家华盛顿.欧文在他的喜剧《纽约的历史》中将他描述成一个又圆又胖的荷兰老人。1823年，诗人Clement Moore在他的诗歌《St.Nicholas印象》中继续将Sintirklass/Saint Nicholas的形象戏剧化。
19世纪60年代卡通制作者Thomas Nash画了一幅胖胖的、慈祥的圣诞老人作为《Harper的一周》的插图。这个圣诞老人的形象开始深深地扎根于美国人民的脑海中。随着时间的推移，圣诞老人的形象传回欧洲，传到南美洲，传遍世界各地。
传说每到12月24日晚上，有个神秘人会乘驾由9只驯鹿拉的雪橇在天上飞翔，挨家挨户地从烟囱进入屋里，然后偷偷把礼物放在好孩子床头的袜子里，或者堆在壁炉旁的圣诞树下。他在一年中的其他时间里，都是忙于制作礼物和监督孩子们的行为。
虽然没有人真的见过神秘人的样子，但是人们会装扮成他的样子来给孩子送上礼物。他通常被描述为一位老人，头戴红色帽子，大大的白色胡子，一身红色棉衣，脚穿红色靴子的样子，拿着装有礼物的大袋子，因为总在圣诞节前夜出现派发礼物，所以习惯地称他为“圣诞老人”。
At the end of the 11th century, religious soldiers from Italy brought the relics of Nicholas Saint Nicholas from Asia to Italy, and built a church to commemorate him in the port city of Bari Bari. Soon Christians from all over the world came to visit the saint. The pilgrims brought the story of Saint Nicholas back to their native land, so the legend of Santa Claus has its own characteristics in different countries.
In the 12th century, there was Nicholas Day in Europe, which was dominated by gifts and charity activities.
When the Dutch colonists came to America, they also took their bishop sintirklass, who was wearing red cassock and riding a white horse. The American image of sinterklass gradually evolved into a happy old elf. At first, American writer Washington Irving described him as a round and fat Dutch old man in his comedy the history of New York. In 1823, poet Clement Moore continued to dramatize the image of sinterklass / Saint Nicholas in his poem impression of St. Nicholas.
Thomas Nash, a cartoonist in the 1860s, painted a fat, kind Santa as an illustration of Harper’s week. The image of Santa Claus began to take root in the minds of the American people. Over time, the image of Santa Claus has spread back to Europe, South America and all over the world. It is said that every night on December 24, a mysterious man would fly in a sleigh pulled by nine reindeer, enter the house from the chimney door-to-door, and then secretly put the gifts in the socks of a good child’s bed, or pile them under the Christmas tree beside the fireplace. He spent the rest of the year making gifts and supervising children’s behavior.
Although no one has ever seen the mysterious man, people will dress up as him to give gifts to children. He is usually described as an old man with a red hat, a big white beard, a red cotton padded coat, red boots on his feet, and a big bag containing gifts. Because he always presents presents on Christmas Eve, he is often called “Santa Claus”.
圣诞鲜花礼盒
圣诞老人的传说 The legend of Santa Claus
圣诞老人是不同传说和神秘人型的结合体。传说圣诞老人是在数千年前的斯堪的纳维亚半岛即出现。北欧神话中司智慧、艺术、诗词、战争的奥丁神，寒冬时节，骑上他那八脚马坐骑驰骋于天涯海角，惩恶扬善，分发礼物。与此同时，其子雷神穿红衣以闪电为武器与冰雪诸神昏天黑地恶战一场，最终战胜寒冷。据异教传说，圣诞老人为奥丁神后裔。在德国中部和北部地区，尼古拉斯被称为“圣诞老人”，在英国被称为“圣诞父亲”，被美国的荷兰移民称为后来的“SantaClaus”。
在荷兰的传说中，圣诞老人Sintirklass还带了一个叫BlackPeter的助手，乘着一艘船来到。他带着一本大书，书中描述了所有荷兰小孩在过去一年中的表现。表现好的小孩就送礼物给他们，不好的小孩便让他的助手(麋鹿）带走。
孩子们都想知道圣诞老人住在何处，他们何时会收到礼物。答案通常是圣诞老人住在北极，他的作坊生产圣诞礼物。1927年被孩子们称做“Markus叔叔”的儿童节目主持人MarkusRautio第一次透露：圣诞老人生活在拉普兰的Korvatunturi。
位于芬兰东部边境地区的Korvatunturi发现了一只类似于野兔的耳朵，事实是圣诞老人的耳朵，它用来聆听孩子们的愿望。斯堪迪纳维亚的传说中讲述了圣诞老人和助手小精灵们的历史。
上世纪结束时，北半球不同关于圣诞老人的传说汇总成同一版本——白胡子老人为孩子们发放礼物，之后返回芬兰拉普兰的Kornatunturi。
1950年开始，圣诞老人快乐地逗留在napapiiri,除了圣诞节还要和孩子们及年轻人进行沟通。越来越多的人定期拜访圣诞老人，1985年，他建立了自己的工作室，每天圣诞老人都来办公室倾听孩子们的圣诞祝愿并和他们沟通交流。圣诞老人村是圣诞老人的主要邮局，它接收全世界孩子们发给圣诞老人的信件。
Santa Claus is a simultaneous interpreting of different legends and mysterious human beings. It is said that Santa Claus appeared thousands of years ago in Scandinavia. In Nordic mythology, Odin, a god of wisdom, art, poetry, and war, rides his eight legged horse to ride around the world in winter, punishing evil and promoting good, and distributing gifts. At the same time, his son, Leishen, dressed in red, took lightning as a weapon to fight against the ice and snow gods, and finally defeated the cold. According to pagan legend, Santa Claus is descended from the god Odin. In the central and northern regions of Germany, Nicholas is known as “Santa Claus”, in Britain as “Father Christmas”, and later as “Santa Claus” by Dutch immigrants in the United States.
According to Dutch legend, sinterklass, Santa Claus, also took an assistant named Black Peter and arrived in a boat. He had a big book with him that described the performance of all Dutch children over the past year. The children with good performance will give them gifts, and the children with bad performance will let his assistant (elk) take them away.
The children want to know where Santa lives and when they will receive presents. The answer is usually that Santa lives in the north pole and his workshop produces Christmas gifts. In 1927, Markus raudio, who was called “Uncle Markus” by children, first revealed that Santa Claus lived in Korvatunturi in Lapland.
Korvatunturi, on the eastern border of Finland, has found a rabbit like ear, in fact Santa’s ear, which is used to listen to children’s wishes. Scandinavian legends tell the story of Santa and his assistant elves.
At the end of the last century, different legends about Santa Claus in the northern hemisphere were put together in the same version: the white bearded man gave gifts to children, and then returned to kornatunturi in Lapland, Finland.
Since 1950, Santa Claus has been happily staying in napapiiri, communicating with children and young people in addition to Christmas. More and more people visit Santa regularly. In 1985, he established his own studio. Every day, Santa comes to the office to listen to the children’s Christmas wishes and communicate with them. Santa Claus Village is Santa’s main post office. It receives letters from children all over the world.
圣诞节鲜花
主教圣·尼古拉的圣诞老人传说 The legend of Santa Claus of bishop Saint Nicholas
圣诞老人的传说来源于西方的民间传说，相传，圣诞老人叫做圣·尼古拉，他生活在公元4世纪小亚细亚的每拉城（在今土耳其境内），是位善良、慷慨、对孩子们非常好的有钱人。东正教尊重尼古拉，视其为创造奇迹的人。尼古拉的家庭很富有，父母也都是基督徒，尼古拉的父母早逝，他把财产都捐给了贫穷的人，自己加入教会，终身为社会服务。后来，尼古拉作了神父，升到了主教，在他死后，人们称他为圣徒，是一位穿着红袍，头戴红帽的白胡子老人。尼古拉的一生中做了许许多多的慈善事业，他总是喜欢在暗中帮助穷苦人民，慢慢的圣诞老人就成为了人们对他的爱称。
The legend of Santa Claus comes from the Western folklore. According to legend, Santa Claus is called Saint Nicholas. He lived in the city of Myra in Asia Minor in the 4th century A.D. (in today’s Turkey). He is a kind, generous and very good rich man for children. The orthodox respect Nikolay as a miracle maker. Nikolay’s family was very rich and his parents were Christians. Nikolay’s parents died early. He donated all his property to the poor, joined the church and served the society for life. Later, Nicholas became a priest and was promoted to the bishop. After his death, people called him a saint. He was a white bearded old man in a red robe and a red hat. Nicholas has done a lot of charities in his life. He always likes to help the poor people in secret. Gradually, Santa Claus has become a nickname for him.
圣诞节礼物
圣诞老人的故事 The story of Santa Claus
从前有一个心地善良的贵族，他的妻子因病去逝，抛下他和他的三个女儿。这个贵族尝试了不少发明，都失败了，但也因此耗尽了钱财，所以他们不得不搬到一家农舍里生活，他的女儿们也只得亲自烧煮、缝纫和打扫。
一晃几年过去，女儿们陆续到了出嫁的年龄，父亲却变得更加沮丧，因为他没钱给女儿们买嫁妆。
一天晚上，女儿们洗完衣服后将长统袜挂在壁炉前烘干。圣人尼古拉Nicholas知道了她们父亲的境况后，就在那天晚上，来到她们的家门前。他从窗口看到一家人都已睡着了，同时也注意到了女孩们的长统袜。随即，他从口袋里掏出三小包黄金从烟囱上一个个投下去，刚好掉在女孩们的长统袜里。
第二天早上，女儿们醒来发现她们的长统袜里装满了金子，足够供她们买嫁妆了。这个贵族也因此能亲眼看到他的女儿们结婚，从此便过上了幸福快乐的生活。
后来，世界各地的孩子们都继承了悬挂圣诞袜的传统。有些国家的孩子则有其它类似的风俗，如在法国，孩子们将鞋子放在壁炉旁等等。
Once upon a time there was a kind-hearted nobleman whose wife died of illness, leaving him and his three daughters behind. The aristocrat tried many inventions and failed, but also ran out of money, so they had to move to a farmhouse, and his daughters had to cook, sew and clean themselves. A few years later, the daughters gradually reached the age of marriage, but the father became more depressed because he had no money to buy dowries for his daughters.
One night, after washing, the girls hung their stockings in front of the fireplace to dry. When Saint Nicholas learned about their father’s situation, he came to their house that night. He saw from the window that the whole family had fallen asleep and noticed the girls’ stockings. Then he took out three packets of gold from his pocket and dropped them one by one from the chimney, just in the girls’ stockings.
The next morning, the girls woke up to find that their stockings were full of gold, enough for their dowry. The aristocrat was able to see his daughters get married and live a happy life.
Later, children all over the world inherited the tradition of hanging Christmas socks. In some countries, children have other similar customs, such as in France, children put their shoes beside the fireplace and so on.
