The Christmas we know today is rooted in a myriad of different cultures, and features a variety of traditions from throughout history, all blended together to form the modern holiday we celebrate.

“You’ve got all sorts of different traditions and ideas that got thrown together,” said Karl Felsen. “It’s absolutely fascinating to see how the myths and stories get created over the years.”

Felsen is a retired executive from Fleet Boston/Bank of America and holds a Ph.D. in English from the state’s University at Albany.

He is a self-proclaimed expert on the evolution of Santa Claus in the Hudson Valley. He will be giving a presentation on Saint Nicholas — Sinterklaas in Dutch — at a meeting of the Guilderland Historical Society today, Nov. 20.

Felsen has portrayed Sinterklaas, in a costume handmade by his wife, at the Albany County Historical Association’s holiday house events at the Ten Broeck Mansion, for the past decade.

Each year of his portrayal, he said, he has done a bit more research, and learned about different traditions from people who attend the holiday events.

“People leave me with stories,” he said, about what they did when they were children, or what their families in Europe or elsewhere do on Saint Nicholas Day or Christmas.

Life of a saint

Saint Nicholas was a true historical figure, born in what was Asia Minor — now Turkey — in the year 271. He was a bishop in a city called Myar and attended the first Council of Nicea in 325.

He was well-known as a bishop during his lifetime and had a reputation as a “great debater,” said Felsen.

After he died, in 342, “his notoriety grew and grew,” he said.

He became famous for his miracles and was named the patron saint of Greece, Russia, Amsterdam, and the patron saint of sailors.

In 1087, his remains were furtively brought, by sailors, to Bari, Italy, where two churches were built as a shrine for him.

Saint Nicholas had also acquired a reputation for secret gift-giving, particularly putting coins in the shoes of the poor.

During the Middle Ages, a feast celebrating Saint Nicholas originated, on his “name day,” Dec. 6. That is thought to be the date he died.

The Roman Catholic Church made that day a church holiday.

The Saint Nicholas of those earlier days was a serious, magisterial figure, one who dictated whether people were deserving of his gifts, or should be punished.

He traveled with a companion, a “dark figure” portrayed differently throughout the world, sometimes as a devil, other times as Zwarte Pieten — “black Peter.”

This dark companion would supply the punishment, if needed, either by carrying naughty children off in a sack, or hitting them with a switch.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, following the Protestant Reformation, public celebrations were abolished.

“They didn’t celebrate Saint Nicholas Day or even Christmas,” said Felsen. “The idea was that the saints and Christmas were Roman Catholic, that they were papist add-ons that weren’t part of the original, true religion.”

Dutch traditions in America

It was during that time period that Dutch settlers came to Colonial America and established New Netherlands and New Amsterdam.

“People tend to think that the Dutch settlers in the new world brought these traditions with them, but they didn’t,” said Felsen. “Almost all of them were Protestants.”

Then, he explained, the Dutch played a vital role in the Revolutionary War, as financiers and as one of the few republics in the world to recognize the new country.

“It was good to be Dutch in America after the Revolution,” said Felsen. “All sorts of Dutch descendants, basking in that glow and in all the good wishes, began to rediscover their roots and traditions.”

The New York Historical Society was founded by John Pintard in 1804 and Saint Nicholas was designated as the patron saint of New York City. Every December they held a celebration in his honor.

Washington Irving, Pintard’s cousin, was also a member of the New York Historical Society, and in 1809, he published a book called Knickerbocker’s History of New York, which helped popularize Saint Nicholas.

“It’s a very amusing book,” said Felsen. “He talks about the Dutch coming to America, but kind of in a poking-fun way.”

Irving’s story directly involved Saint Nicholas in the founding of New Amsterdam; he asserts Saint Nicholas he had accompanied the explorers on their boat, told them where to land, and where to build a church.

In the end, Irving described Saint Nicholas flying over the buildings of New York, in a wagon drawn by a horse, and tossing presents down chimneys.

Irving even depicted the saint as being jolly and fat, a departure from the traditional image of Saint Nicholas as a thin man with a white beard, in red bishop’s robes, carrying a shepherd’s crook.

Saint evolves into Santa

Still, at that point, Saint Nicholas was not associated with Christmas, nor was Santa Claus a celebrated figure, although the very first mention of Santa Claus may have come in 1773.

A New York City newspaper called Rivington’s New York Gazette carried a story on Dec. 23, 1773, in which James Rivington wrote that the anniversary of Saint Nicholas was celebrated at Protestant Hall.

He wrote that Saint Nicholas was sometimes known as “St. A. Claus.”

The speculation, said Felsen, is that Rivington, who, he said, was known for his “sloppy reporting,” may have been trying to refer to Saint Nicholas with his Dutch name, Sinterklaas.

“St.,” said Felsen, is an abbreviation for “saint” or “sint” and, phonetically, “a. claus” sounds similar to “erklass.”

Clement Clarke Moore joined the New York Historical Society in 1813, and, along with Pintard and Irving, was said to be disillusioned with the Christmas season in New York, which had become a time of “merry making” that turned riotous, sometimes including vandalizing and thieving.

In 1823, “The Night Before Christmas” was published, allegedly by Moore, although it’s never been confirmed.

Felsen said the story was originally published, with the title “A Visit From St. Nicholas”, in the Troy Sentinel, also in 1923.

This portrayed Saint Nicholas as a merry gift-giver, going up and down chimneys to deliver presents, and instead of a horse and wagon, he had a sleigh with eight reindeer.

The speculation is that Moore wanted to return Christmas to a season of giving.

The story is about a person who breaks into people’s homes — but to give, not to take; to spread happiness, not to punish. There was no dark counterpart.

“Sometime between 1773 and 1823, everything kind of changed and fused together and we came out with Santa Claus,” said Felsen.

People still celebrate Saint Nicholas Day, said Felsen, but the figure we know as Santa Claus has many traits derived from the saint.

He has the white beard, the red suit, and also has companions, although, said Felsen, elves are “merry and light” and not dark characters.

There is still, though, the concept of children being “naughty or nice” and receiving coal as punishment.

Saint Nicholas still celebrated in the Netherlands

In Amsterdam, the celebration of Saint Nicholas — separate from that of Santa Claus —continues to be large and vibrant.

The story goes that Sinterklaas spends most of the year in Spain — likely because the part of Italy where the remains of Saint Nicholas lie was once a territory of Spain — and arrives, by boat, in Amsterdam in mid-November.

With his white horse and his companion, he docks across from Saint Nicholas Church, as thousands of children line the canal.

For several weeks, he travels through Amsterdam, visiting schools and nursing homes.

On Saint Nicholas Eve, families typically have a big meal, exchange small gifts, and recite poems they have written about each other.

Before bed, they set their shoes out, filled with hay for Saint Nicholas’s horse. The following morning, the hay will be gone, replaced with candy and small gifts.

Sinterklaas then returns to Spain until the following year.

In recent years, the portayal of Zwarte Pieten, black Peter, has become a source of controversy, since it is typically played by a white male using black face paint.

“It has had some racial implications,” said Felsen.

In 2013, a judge in Holland ruled that the figure, as portrayed, is offensive, Felsen said, and the mayor of Amsterdam decided that, over a period of several years, the black Peter character will transition to a man streaked with soot, as if he has been going up and down chimneys.

“This is an example of how traditions morph in all different wild ways, even from year to year,” said Felsen. “For us it is exciting because, right here in the Hudson Valley, we were right in the middle of the morph from Sinterklaas to Santa Claus.”