He sees you when you're awake, he knows when you're asleep, and he puts your name on a list.

No, I'm not talking about an omnipresent surveillance state.

I am, of course, talking about Santa Claus.

If you think of Santa, you probably have a very firm idea of what he looks like, but how did this identity get developed?

And where did all the lore around him come from?

Learn more about the history of Santa Claus and how his legend came to be on this episode of

everything everywhere daily. If you remember back not very long ago, I did an episode on St Nicholas. That episode focused on

the actual saint and I left the development of the modern versions of Santa Claus

to another episode. Well this is that episode. Just to quickly recap, the Christian Saint Nicholas became very popular in Europe

and became associated with gift giving, especially to children.

In Dutch, Saint Nicholas was known as Sintnicholus, which became shortened to Sinter Closs.

Sinter Closs was depicted as an old man with white hair and a white beard who lived in Spain

and dressed in a red bishop's outfit.

Over in England, there was a fictional person named Father Christmas

who was supposed to embody the spirit of Christmas.

Also, the Protestant Reformation removed the celebration of Saints Days

in many Protestant countries, and many of the celebrations of Saint Nicholas

Day were moved to Christmas which was in the same month.

It was in this environment that the Dutch and English traditions mingled in early 19th century

America, particularly in New York and

New England. The first step from St Nicholas to Santa Claus can probably be

attributed to the 1809 book written by Washington Irving, A History of New York.

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