Not many people know this, but Santa Claus and Father Christmas were two different people.

Santa comes from the Dutch Sinter Klaas, which was their pronunciation of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nick was a philanthropic Christian bishop in what is now Turkey in the 4th century who was famed for giving gifts.

He became the patron saint of children and his feast day is December 6, which is close enough to Christmas for a tradition to start.

Dutch settlers took Sinter Klaas to America and, in the 19th century, he was adopted and adapted by Americans generally as Santa Claus, after Clement Clark Moore penned the poem Twas The Night Before Christmas in 1823.

He became a chubby, happy, white bearded chap in a red suit and traveled in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. American culture said he designated children naughty or nice. Naughty children might get coal in their stocking; nice ones got a present.

This was an improvement on the original medieval Sinterklaas: he took an aide along to give bad children a birching.

His image was reinforced in film, magazines and by Coca Cola, who used him to promote the drink that has now taken over the world.

Father Christmas was an English figure, known from the 15th century and associated with adult festivities rather those involving children.

He gave no gifts but became a merry old man who encouraged people to eat and drink in celebration of Christ’s birth. He was known as Old Christmas or Father Christmas and promoted feasting, hospitality and generosity to the poor.

The populace needed little excitement to have a good time and enjoyed themselves so much that Cromwell tried to ban him along with all Christmas celebrations in the 17th century. They failed.

“I’ve been working 51 weeks of the yearand now you say I can’t have a party at Christmas? On your bike, Oliver.”

Father Christmas survived and merged with Santa in the 19th century as part of the Victorian revival of family celebrations, as portrayed by Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol.

In America, he is also known as Kris Kringle and around the world he has many different names, including Pere Noel in France, Babbo Natale in Italy, Saxta Baba (Frozen Dad) in Azerbaijan and Ded Moroz (GrandpaFrost) in Russia.

If you really want to make sure you get a visit from him the best place to be is Iceland. It has 13 Santas. Well, actually, they are trolls known as the Yule Lads.

In the 13 days before Christmas, Icelandic children put a shoe in the window each night and one of the lads visits and leaves either a sweet or a rotting potato, depending on whether the youngster has been good or bad.

Bit different to the sort of yule lads you are likely to seein the pubs and clubs around Huddersfield at Christmas.