This image originated in the United States during the 19th century, after Dutch settlers brought the legend of Sinterklaas ("Saint Nicholas") to 17th-century New Amsterdam (present-day New York City).

Over time, this connection has been maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, children's books, family Christmas traditions, films, and advertising.

In continental Europe (more precisely the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany), he is usually portrayed as a bearded bishop in canonical robes.

Over the objection of the monks of Myra the sailors took the bones of Saint Nicholas to Bari, where they are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Nicola.

This date was earlier than the original day of gifts for the children, which moved in the course of the Reformation and its opposition to the veneration of saints in many countries on 24 and 25 December.

[10][11] Father Christmas dates to 16th century England during the reign of Henry VIII, when he was pictured as a large man in green or scarlet robes lined with fur.

[22] Folklorist Margaret Baker maintains that "the appearance of Santa Claus or Father Christmas, whose day is the 25th of December, owes much to Odin, the old blue-hooded, cloaked, white-bearded Giftbringer of the north, who rode the midwinter sky on his eight-footed steed Sleipnir, visiting his people with gifts.

"[23] In northern Europe, the Yule goat was an earlier bearer of gifts, which has to some degree become conflated with Santa Claus, for instance in the Finnish Joulupukki tradition.

For example, in Washington Irving's History of New York (1809), Sinterklaas was Anglicized into "Santa Claus" (a name first used in the U.S. press in 1773)[25] but lost his bishop's apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat.

[26] Irving's interpretation of Santa Claus was part of a broader movement to tone down the increasingly wild Christmas celebrations of the era, which included aggressive home invasions under the guise of wassailing, substantial premarital sex (leading to shotgun weddings in areas where the Puritans, waning in power and firmly opposed to Christmas, still held some influence) and public displays of sexual deviancy; the celebrations of the era were derided by both upper-class merchants and Christian purists.

[7][28] St. Nick is described as being "chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf" with "a little round belly", that "shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly", in spite of which the "miniature sleigh" and "tiny reindeer" still indicate that he is physically diminutive.

A boy from Colorado writing to the children's magazine The Nursery in late 1874 said, "If we did not live so very far from the North Pole, I should ask Santa Claus to bring me a donkey.

is the title of an iconic editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church in the 21 September 1897 edition of The New York Sun that became the most reprinted in the U.S. and included the famous reply, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus".

Much of Santa Claus's mythos was not firmly established at the time, leaving Baum to give his "Neclaus" (Necile's Little One) a variety of immortal support, a home in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho, and ten reindeer—who could not fly, but leapt in enormous, flight-like bounds.

[41] Earlier, Santa Claus had appeared dressed in red and white and essentially in his current form on several covers of Puck magazine in the first few years of the 20th century.

Santa is much more organic, integral, connected to the past, and therefore connected to the future.Norman Corwin's 1938 comic radio play The Plot to Overthrow Christmas, set entirely in rhyme, details a conspiracy of the Devil Mephistopheles and damned figures of history to defeat the good will among men of Christmas, by sending the Roman emperor Nero to the North Pole to assassinate Santa Claus.

Many television commercials, comic strips and other media depict this as a sort of humorous business, with Santa's elves acting as a sometimes mischievously disgruntled workforce, cracking jokes and pulling pranks on their boss.

In Kyrgyzstan, a mountain peak was named after Santa Claus, after a Swedish company had suggested the location be a more efficient starting place for present-delivering journeys all over the world, than Lapland.

[52] Another attempt to adapt Santa Claus to the colors of the Brazilian flag occurred in 2024 in Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina where a sculpture wearing yellow clothes with green gloves and bag was installed, generating controversy, being accused of making an association with the political extreme right, due to the colors being seen in protests by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro.

[56][57][58] Santa is generally depicted as a portly, jolly, white-bearded man, often with spectacles, wearing a red outfit consisting of jacket, trousers and hat all trimmed with white fur, accessorized with black leather belt and boots, and carrying a bag full of gifts for children.

[59][60][61] The traditional 1823 Christmas poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" relates that Santa has "a little round belly / That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly".

[citation needed] Santa Claus's home is traditionally said to include a residence and a workshop where he is said to create—often with the aid of elves or other supernatural beings—the gifts he is said to deliver to good children at Christmas.

Due to this, some companies offered video calls for a fee using apps such as Zoom where children could speak to an actor who was dressed as Santa Claus.

[98] An example of a public and private cooperative venture is the opportunity for expatriate and local children and parents to receive postmarked mail and greeting cards from Santa during December in the Finnish Embassy in Beijing, People's Republic of China,[99] Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland, and the People's Republic of China Postal System's Beijing International Post Office.

[120][121] Some websites, such as Santa's page on Microsoft's former Windows Live Spaces or emailSanta.com, have used or still use "bots" or other automated programs to compose and send personalized and realistic replies.

[126][127] Some Christians, particularly Calvinists such as the Puritans, disliked the idea of Santa Claus as well as Christmas in general, believing that the lavish celebrations were not in accordance with their faith.

[133] Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science movement, wrote: "the children should not be taught that Santa Claus has aught to do with this Christmas pastime.

Writing in Mothering magazine, writer Carol Jean-Swanson makes similar points, noting that the original figure of Saint Nicholas gave only to those who were needy and that today Santa Claus seems to be more about conspicuous consumption: "He [...] mirrors some of our highest ideals: childhood purity and innocence, selfless giving, unfaltering love, justice, and mercy.

[156] Psychology professor Jacqueline Woolley helped conduct a study that found that children seemed competent in their use of logic, evidence, and comparative reasoning even though they might conclude that Santa Claus or other fanciful creatures were real.

According to Woolley, the existence of Santa Claus is affirmed to children by "friends, books, TV and movies" and by "hard evidence" of "half-eaten cookies and empty milk glasses".