Saint Nicholas - or - Santa Claus

I grew up "knowing" that Santa Claus would visit my house and leave gifts for me and my family sometime in the early pre-dawn hours of December 25th.  There would be presents under the Christmas tree for everyone, and from everyone, including Santa.  I grew up believing that Santa Claus was a short, jolly, fat white man who had white hair and a beard, twinkling blue eyes, and wire-rimmed glasses.  He wore a thick red suit with white fur trim, and had black boots and a wide black belt with a bronze buckle.  He lived at the North Pole with his helpers, who were elves - and he magically (or should I say miraculously?), in just a few hours, delivered gifts to everyone on earth with the aid of eight reindeer and a sleigh that flies through the air.  -  If you tried to sell that idea now, as a book or a movie, you'd be laughed out of an office....
   The church's original Saint Nicholas was born in the year 270 in a small town that is now located in Turkey - a Muslim country.  At the time, it was known as Ptarra, Lycia; now Patara, Turkey.  When Saint Nicholas was born, it was still under Roman rule, and was known as Patara of Lycia et Pamphylia; it's also known, now, as the Anatolian province of Turkey.  Anatolia was the Greek word for east; in Turkish, it means "the land full of mothers."  The original settlers in the area were a group of Ural-Altaic tribes who migrated south from Mongolia; then there were waves of other nomads, followed by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.  The word "Christian" was first documented in use in Anatolia.  Nikolaos of Myra was consecrated as Bishop at Demre in 317.  His parents were, reportedly, Greek Christians, and he was an only son.  His parents died in an epidemic when he was young, and he was adopted into the house of his Uncle, Nikolaos the Bishop of Patara.  He served as a monk for several years in Beit Jala, Palestine before returning to Asia Minor, saying the Holy Spirit had told to to return to Anatolia.  Nikolaos was one of the Bishops who responded to the Emperor Constantine's request and attended the First Council of Niceae.  He died in 343 at the age of 73.  As the years passed, he was declared a Saint of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, was called the Wonderworker, the Defender of Orthodoxy, and the Holy Hierarch.
   As a wealthy man, and knowing of the suffering of the poverty-stricken workers in tenements, Nicholas was known to walk through the town late at night, putting a coin into the shoes of  laborers. (The shoes usually stank and needed to dry, and were left outside the house entries.)  His miracles were in the same vein of giving: traveling on a wheat-laden ship from Palestine to Turkey, he persuaded the crew to leave part of the load on the shore, as it was a time of famine.  The wheat had already been weighed, as it was placed on board, and the sailors did not want to be short upon arrival - it was the Emperor's wheat, after all.  Upon arriving in Turkey, the full measure of  wheat was found to be in the hold of the ship, even though a good part had been unloaded in Palestine.  He is also said to have provided the dowries for three poor girls, who otherwise would have been sold into slavery, or made into prostitutes.
   So how did a Turkish Saint turn into Santa Claus?  Sinterklaas, our Santa Claus, is a Dutch corruption of Saint Nikolaos - the way one of my family names changed from the original Waterhouse to Watrous.  Originally, on Saint Nicholas' Day, a good boy or girl would find a coin in their shoe - when coins were not an everyday thing, it was quite a gift.  Then the middle-class started giving gifts to their children, and the Christmas present tradition was born.....
   Here are a few early representations of Saint Nikolaos:

And the 1881 illustration of Saint Nick by Thomas Nast, drawn from the description in "A Visit From St. Nicholas"....

I'm still wondering how we got from the original man to this Dutch caricature...