From Jack Campin: Maybe somebody here is familiar with the Greek iconography for St Nicholas in other places? The attributes of saints were standardized quite early on.

True. Of course, our modern (And by modern, I mean post-Moore/Nast) "Santa" has more to do, I think, with the figure known as "Father Christmas" in Britain than the actual former Bishop of Myra from the 3rd century C.E.

For one thing, he arrives at Christmas Eve, rather than the Eve of Saint Nicholas' feast (December 5). And depictions of Father Christmas, in Victorian art, was probably, in turn, influenced by Charles Dickens' description of the Spirit of Christmas Present in 1843.

And that account from the Lafayette Aurora predates Dickens by a generation. If it's accurate, and not a mis-remembering of almost-forgotten traditions, belsnickling was also a tradition more closely associated with Chritmastime, rather than the Feast of Saint Nicholas.

It was only after Moore's poem was published that the idea that "Santa Claus" comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve became widely accepted (again, this is something I picked up from that Forbes article, linked to, above).

From Leencia: I have statuettes of Santa in a variety of outfits. Dwelling as he does at the North Pole, Santa can look south to every culture in the world, and he has outfits from many of them.

Exactly. But if you look at modern American popular culture (whether in malls around the country, or on our T.V. or movie screens), you'd think that Santa Claus has only one outfit in his closet,