Santa is an American thing, insofar as the cross-fertilisation of cultures in New York (formerly New Amsterdam) saw Dutch observance of St Nicholas’ Day (Sinter Klaas) and the British and French versions of Father Christmas conflate into what Coca-Cola turned into the fat red man of Christmas advertising, and call Santa Claus.
…
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
— excerpt from A Visit from St. Nicholas published in 1823
You can already hear quite a few of the modern “Santa” tropes there: fat, jolly, rosy cheeks, fur, bag of toys, pipe (though less so these days!), coming down the chimney.
No mention of red though, but even Coke say that Santa was pictured wearing red before they got to him.
