Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas.
San Nicola was born in Patara ( Turkey ) from a rich family, was the Bishop of Myra in the 4th century AD. and was buried there.
In 1087 his body and his presumed treasure were stolen by Italian Crusader knights. The body was left in Bari and St. Nicholas became the patron saint of this city. Dante also speaks of him in Purgatory (XX-31-33).
The oldest legend about St. Nicholas then underwent slight corrections to make it suitable for children, but it said thus: three poor young people were destined for prostitution. A nobleman who had fallen into poverty wanted to marry one and was moved by their tears. He went to S. Nicola who promised to help everyone:for two consecutive nights he threw a lot of gold coins inside the house of the three girls. On the third day he found the windows closed, and then he let the sack enter the house by lowering it from the chimney. Stockings were spread around the fireplace and filled with gold coins.
In popular fantasy S. Nicola he became “ the bearer of gifts ”, On the night of December 6 (St. Nicholas) and then on the night of Christmas .
The cult of St. Nicholas, which had spread to northern Europe, was u then brought to America by Dutch immigrants . The saint in Dutch was called Sinter Klass but in the United States he established himself as Santa Klaus .
In 1809 the writer Washington Irvin for the first time he recounted the movements of Santa Claus in the sky for the distribution of gifts; in 1821 the American pastor Clement Clarice Moore wrote a story about Christmas, for his children, in which the character of Santa Claus appeared with a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer .
In 1860 Thomas Nast , illustrator and caricaturist of the newspaper New York Illustrateur Weekly , dressed Santa Claus of a long cape trimmed with fur. For nearly 30 years Nast he illustrated all aspects of the Christmas legend and in 1885 established the residence of Santa Claus at the North Pole .
The following year, the American writer Gorge P. Webster specified that the toy factory and home of Santa Claus were hidden in the glaciers of the North Pole.
In 1931 the Coca Cola decided to use Santa Claus in his advertising campaigns and commissioned an American artist, such Haddon Sundblom , the task of redesigning and standardizing the old saintly gentleman.
The artist was inspired by his neighbor, a traveling salesman who is always busy with packages and packages, a fat man with a white beard and a peaceable attitude. Neighbor + white and red colors of coke =Santa Claus.
The image convinced the executives of Coca Cola who reported it on one of the first advertisements:a fat goblin with a barrel belly, the white bum, wearing a red dress trimmed with white fur, black boots and a belt holding a bottle of Coca Cola . Since that advertising campaign ended, no one in the world has ever seen Santa Claus again depicted with different colors.