This image from The Coca Cola Company incorporates Haddon Sundblom’s Santa Claus. Santa is from Saint and Claus is from Nicholas. Nika is Greek for conqueror and laus is Greek for People. Saint Nick is the Conqueror of People.
The Coca Cola site mentions that Saint Nick is sometimes depicted in Bishop’s robes, that is, the red with ermine borders. They don’t say that he was a Roman Catholic Diocesan Bishop. They don’t say that the Catholic Church canonized him as a saint. They don’t say that he worked countless miracles in his unending work of serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the poorest of the poor. They absolutely don’t say that this holy bishop went out of his way to financially help the desperately poor father of three girls, who were in immediate danger of being pimped by their father into prostitution in an effort to make some money.
Sundblom’s depiction depicts the innocent joy of chastity and fellowship. I wonder why Snap doesn’t sue Coca Cola for the outrage of depicting a Catholic Bishop in a good and holy manner! At any rate, isn’t it always amazing how thoroughly the secular culture uses all that which is Roman Catholic in origin for all that is good and holy? Actually, no suprise there. Think about how the world history books in use in high schools and universities utterly ignore the Catholic Church, so that only about 1% of history is actually presented, a distorted 1% at that.
Today’s feast of Saint Nick is overwhelmingly huge still today in some countries around the world, where the canonized saint, and not Coca Cola’s marketing is celebrated. I love how gift giving is associated with a Catholic saint. Don’t forget, in remembrance of this great saint, remember that gift giving can be saving men, women, teenagers and children from prostitution. And wouldn’t that make for a wonderful celebration of Christmas all around! What can you do today ?
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
Saint Nicholas also punched a guy in the face….and was later canonized. How great is that?
In fact, in the Netherlands, Sint Nicholas (colloquially known as ‘Sinterklaas’, which probably is the route english ended up with Santa Claus) is still widely celebrated – and he’s always seen as a proper bishop and dressed as such. (Of course, some muslims tend to object heavily to the cross on his mitre, or the crozier: though luck). The interesting part is that the feast is pretty much celebrated by everyone, even though just a small percentage of the population is actively Catholic.