The origins of Santa Claus

Who is Santa Claus:

How did Nicholas become Santa?

In a bid to gain pagan followers, Christians adopted the tradition moving it to December 25th after they had turned the Saturnalia festival into a religious celebration or "Christmas". 

In the early 1800s, novelist Washington Irving wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History where he mentions several times a white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.
Prof. Clement Moore, read Knickerbocker History, and published, as a result, a poem based on the character Santa Claus.
But it was Bavarian Illustrator Thomas Nast who gave Santa a home and factory in the North Pole with lists of good and bad children.

In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation hired the Swedish artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. The corporation insisted that Santa’s suit should be bright "Coca- Cola red"!






Sources : unmuseum
               National Geographic 
               Live Science