Santa is an all-America fellow, a descendant of the St. Nicholas (Sanct Herr 'Cholas) who visited the children of Nieuw Amsterdam once a year. This is from the whimsical Knickerbocker's A History of New York, published by Washington Irving in 1809. Historians, in fact, credit Irving for promoting the St. Nicholas legend into popular custom. It remained for others to tell us what Santa looks like. In Irving's day, St. Nick was tall and robed and delivbered his gifts riding a white charger. Clement Moore's The Night Before Christmas poem (which was adapted from the creation of a man named Henry Livingston) was published in 1823 and described Santa and his reindeer the way we know them today. Later in the century, illustrator Thomas Nast added the finishing touches to Santa's portrait.