Three Kings/Wise Men/Magi in the Christmas Story

Legends are told about them and they have been given names. This is how they are often described:

• Gaspar (or Caspar), who has brown hair and a brown beard (or no beard!) and wears a green cloak and a gold crown with green jewels on it. He is the King of Sheba. Gaspar represents the Frankincense brought to Jesus.
• Melchior, who has long white hair and a white beard and wears a gold cloak. He is the King of Arabia. Melchior represents the Gold brought to Jesus.
• Balthazar,who has black skin and a black beard (or no beard!) and wears a purple cloak. He is the King of Tarse and Egypt. Balthazar represents the gift of Myrrh that was brought to Jesus.
  

Herod asked the Wise Men to find Jesus and tell him where he was, not so he could go and worship him as he said, but so he could kill him! He thought that Jesus sounded like a new King that could come and take his power away.
When the Wise Men found Jesus and Mary, they would have been living in a normal house in Bethlehem, because by this time Jesus would have been aged between one and two. Then they gave their gifts to him. The gifts seem quite strange to give to a baby, but Christians believe that they had the following meanings:

• Gold: is associated with Kings and Christians believe that Jesus is the King of Kings.
• Frankincense: is sometimes used in worship in Churches and showed that people child worship Jesus.
• Myrrh: is a perfume that is put on dead bodies to make them smell nice and showed that Jesus would suffer and die.

The gifts are also all things that come the east of Israel in Arabia. When they were about to go to tell Herod where Jesus was, they were warned in a dream not to, so Herod could not carry out him horrible plan.
Click here to read more about the story

Nowadays, children get other kind of presents: electronical or traditional ones.