The Real Santa Claus ...
Nicholas, Saint, patron of children and sailors, of Italy, Greece, and Russia, and of many other places and persons. Little is known of him, but he is traditionally identified as a 4th-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor. His relics were stolen from Myra in the Middle Ages and taken to Bari, Italy. Santa Nicolas is the subject of many legends. He is credited with restoring to life three boys who had been chopped up and pickled in salt by a butcher. Another and more famous story concerns his giving three bags of gold to the daughters of a poor man and thus saving them from lives of prostitution.  In the Netherlands and elsewhere St. Nicholas's feast (Dec. 6) is a children's holiday, appropriate for gifts. The colonial New Yorkers adopted from the Pennslyvania-Dutch calling him Santa Claus (shortened Dutch Sint Nikolaas or Latin/Greek Santa Nicolas).

May, 1087. A crew of 62 Barese sailed into the Byzantine harbour-town of Myra (South coast of Turkey). Bursting into the town's holiest shrine, they smashed their way through panels of priceless marble, into an ancient and sacred tomb. A story passed down from the Bari area has the City being bombarded by attacking "Nor-men".  The city is levelled, but the church of St. Nicholas is untouched.  The "pagan" King and Queen visit the "holy" church and ask about its wondrous survival.  They are told of the legend of St. Nicholas and his great deeds.  The queen falls to her knees and prays to God to allow her to have a child, vowing that she would bring the child up a good christian.  They sail back to their lands where the queen miraculously gives birth to a son she names Nicholas, and raises him to be a good christian and a man-of-the-cloth, growing up to become bishop, and performing the same good deeds of his name-sake Sint Nikolaas. 

It is some time afterwards that we learn of reindeers and sleds and the winter-wear of a red-clothed bishop of the Normans.  Miracle or fiction, many still believe that the spirit of Santa Nicolas or Sint Nikolaas or Santa 'Claus lives on today.   I myself have visited the site of his remains.  And I felt his spirit there, as I feel his spirit come alive every time I dawn his suit and beard.  Miracle or fiction?

The stolen relics were taken to the Italian town of Bari, and hidden in a sacred crypt in the Basilica di San Nicola. Now nearly 1000 years later, one of Italy's leading forensic scientists and a man from Bari himself - Professor Francesco Introna - is investigating these relics and the man they belonged to. This investigation leads Professor Introna's on a personal journey to find the true origins of the patron saint of his city, revealing lost details about the real Santa Claus, and creating a 3D computerised reconstruction of his face for the very first time.

A rosy-cheeked, white bearded Santa Claus, in a red costume, is recognised all over the world. But the man behind it all - the real Saint Nicholas - is shrouded in mystery. As this investigation reveals, he was not a lovable hermit from the frozen North, but a tough early Christian bishop who lived on the sun-drenched shores of the Mediterranean coast of Turkey during the time of the Roman Empire. As the investigation progresses it becomes clear that the story of the Saint's relics is as colourful as his legend. His body is not even in one piece: there are also alleged fragments of his skeleton as far a-field as New York, and in his homeland of Turkey.

Bringing together meticulous historical detective work, cutting edge forensic science and facial reconstruction, the makers of Nefertiti: Search for the Lost Mummy will bring St Nicholas - the real Santa - back to life. Using CGI from Atlantic Productions award-winning special effects unit, magical dramatisations, and interviews with world leading academics, will reveal the incredible story of how a humble priest from Turkey became one of the most celebrated figures on the planet, and how the struggle to control his remains still endures to this day.

Tracing the legendary story back to its roots reveals that the real Santa Claus was actually born in a small Roman town in Turkey in the 4th century. It all began there with St Nicholas, a man said to have supernatural powers and unending generosity. Countless tales speak of his legendary beneficence, yet to this day what he looked like, how he died, and who the real man was, is a mystery.

The key to unraveling the real St Nicholas may lie in his remains. In the 11th century Italian sailors took the body of St Nicholas from his hometown in Turkey, to Bari in Southern Italy, where they remain to this day. Many believe that this was the event that ensured the spread of St Nicholas' popularity and the rise of modern Santa. Had the Italian sailors not stolen the bones, then perhaps the armies that were advancing on Europe might have destroyed them, and his legend could have been lost forever.

From the bones in Bari, clues to Saint Nicholas life are already emerging. Analysis of his skull has shown that his nose was broken during his life, and would have been crooked. It's a detail that has eluded icon-painters and film directors ever since. Using detailed measurements obtained from the skull, Professor Introna has commissioned Dr Caroline Wilkinson of Manchester University to create a computerised facial reconstruction of the Saint, allowing the world to see the true face of Santa - crooked nose and all - for the very first time. Combining pioneering facial reconstruction technology with x-rays and precise cranial measurements, the team reveal the face of St Nicholas after 1600 years. For the first time, audiences will look into the eyes of the man that gave rise to the legend of Santa Claus.

New information is also emerging about the rest of Saint Nicholas's skeleton. Traveling to Turkey, Francesco Introna joins colleagues from the Istanbul Institute of Forensic Sciences, and together they analyse the bones found in Turkey to establish whether they match the bones in Bari, and could also be relics of Saint Nicholas. Perhaps the most incredible relics of St Nicholas were deposited at just a few hundred yards from the site of the Twin Towers in New York. We follow Dr Introna as he investigates the startling suggestion that some of the great saint's remains were being kept in the St Nicholas Church that was crushed by the collapsing South Tower on September 11, 2001. Yet his spirit lives on, and the church's priest, Father John Romas, is determined to rebuild the church in Saint Nicholas' honour.

Traveling all over the world, Francesco Introna sheds new light on Saint Nicholas, resurrecting the face of the man who symbolises Christmas, and helping to preserve his true memory: a memory that is in danger of being lost beneath the mass marketing of the modern commercialised 'Santa'. However, in an ironic twist, the relics of Saint Nicholas in Italy are now in danger themselves. Having been kept in a humid tomb since 1087, they are on the verge of disintegrating, and might not last more than another hundred years. The race is now on to preserve the relics of Saint Nicholas, as well as his memory, for future generations.