The Feast of St. Nicholas

I enjoy Christmas traditions and stories. I also remember learning in German class that in Europe gifts are often exchanged on December 6th, which is the Feast of St. Nicholas. It makes me wonder, what does one say on this day? Happy Feast of St. Nicholas Day!!!??? Anyhow, St. Nicholas was known for gift giving among other things and in Europe many countries actually do the Christmas gift giving on this day. I watched Rick Steves' European Christmas this past week and in the show Rick stated that apparently it was Martin Luther who wanted to bring the gift focus back to Christ which is why many traditions were changed to have gift giving occur on the 25th.

Interesting, but really all of this is back story for what occurred to me when I read the Wikipedia article. This man was the patron saint of virtually everyone/everywhere. The one that got me though was the fact that he is the patron saint of thieves. There's a Saint for thieves? Does this mean that Catholic thieves pray to him during a heist? One question I had though was who was it in fact that bestowed St. Nicholas as the Patron Saint of thieves? Or did the thieves just claim them as their own? One other note that my friend mentioned to me was this: He is the Patron Saint of the falsely accused as well. So....whether you did it or you didn't...he's your man!