From the ArcaMax Publishing, Trivia Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/trivia/s-403199-171010
St. Nicholas was bishop of the Turkish town of Myra in the early fourth century. It was the Dutch who first made him into a Christmas gift-giver, and Dutch settlers brought him to America where his name eventually became the familiar Santa Claus.
This news arrived on: 09/01/2008