Who invented Santa Claus? Santa Claus has been in most of our memories since childhood. But where did the iconic image of the jolly man with a bowl full of jelly in a red suit come from?

It all started in the year 370 A.D. when a man named Nicholas became a Christian bishop. He was said to have given away his inherited wealth to the poor and sick.

He is also known for the legend of secretly dropping bags of gold into the stockings of children. He was declared a saint in 1446.

Over centuries, stories of Saint Nicholas evolved, blending with European folklore to create a mythical figure who delivered gifts to children. The transformation of the name from Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus occurred through linguistic evolution and cultural blending.

Saint Nicholas was pronounced “Sinterklaas” when Dutch settlers came to America in the 17th century, the name “Sinterklaas”was repeated as Santa Claus by English speaking Americans.

However, it wasn’t until the 1860s that the jolly fat man in a red suit finally took shape. Before then, he was often depicted as thin and in clothing of any color.

A political cartoonist named Thomas Nast, known for inventing the donkey and elephant symbols of the Democrat and Republican parties, produced this drawing that would forever change the image of Santa Claus.

100 years later, this depiction would finally be made official by the U S government when they released the first postage stamp of Santa Claus in 1972. Since then, he has been featured over a dozen times on holiday stamps.