The modern Santa Claus - at least as we know him in North America - is an amalgam of a fourth century Christian saint, various figures from European folklore and (purportedly) a Dutch handyman in 19th century New York City.
The Greek Saint Nicholas was the bishop of Myra, now a part of Turkey, in the 300s. The patron saint of children, fishermen and merchants (among others), he was credited with often giving gifts, most famously supplying the dowries for three poor young women to save them from prostitution.
Over the centuries, gift-bearing figures emerged in numerous European countries, some clearly inspired by Nicholas, others with less certain origins.
In Denmark, the gnomish nisse - a mythical creature described as a short, bearded old man who watched over farms - became associated with Christmas.
In Renaissance Britain, the green-robed Father Christmas emerged as a personification of the season. In a Christmas play, playwright Ben Jonson provided a description of the character: sporting a long beard, he was dressed in stockings, a doublet and a tall hat. (Incidentally, and for no apparent reason, Mr. Jonson's Father Christmas was also armed with a club.) In the Netherlands, meanwhile, Saint Nick became Sinterklaas, a red-robed figure who travelled from house to house on a white horse, and who was originally celebrated on Dec. 6, Saint Nicholas's feast day.
Carrying a shepherd's staff and dressed in the regalia of a bishop, he was also equipped with a large book that listed naughty and nice children. Along with a helper, named Black Peter, he would dole out candy to the good children and spankings for the bad.
Dutch settlers brought Sinterklaas to the United States, where his name was anglicized as "Santa Claus."
The enduring image of the rotund, jolly, Yuletide gift-giver was largely established in the 19th century, inspired by A Visit from Saint Nicholas.
The iconic poem, published anonymously in 1823 by Columbia University professor Clement Clarke Moore, solidified the idea that Santa Claus drove a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer, visited on Christmas Eve and slipped in and out of houses through the chimney.
According to the most popular story of the poem's composition, the inspiration for Mr. Moore's enduring description of the tubby, jolly old elf was a local Dutch labourer with the same physique that he would use to describe Santa Claus.
Mr. Moore's portrait was further expanded by American popular culture over the years: a 1939 children's story invented a ninth reindeer (the red-nosed Rudolph later popularized by Gene Autry's rendition of the song about him); and his home eventually shifted from Spain (in the Dutch tradition) or the mountains (in various other European legends) to the North Pole.