Together with the Christmas tree, Sankt Niklaus, as the Germans called the benefactor, became a central figure in German Christmas habits. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, German immigrants, the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch, carried them to the United States, from where they later spread to the rest of the world, if only as marketing icons for Coca Cola.
圣诞老人原本是一位土耳其苦修士，在中世纪的时候，他穿越欧洲的中部和北部，为孩子们送去礼物，声称自己是4世纪传道的希腊圣·尼古拉的化身。和圣诞树一起，Sankt Niklaus，德国人对乐善好施的圣诞老人的称呼，成为了德国圣诞节的中心。在17世纪和18世纪里，德国移民，即所谓的德裔宾州人，将这一传统带到了美国，并从那里传扬到全世界，就好像为可口可乐打造市场品牌一样。