Santa Claus AKA St. Nicholas

Found this list of facts on our jolly old fella. (I didnt independantly verify the validiaty of these)

In the United States and Canada, his name is Santa Claus.

In China, he is called Shengdan Laoren.

In England, his name is Father Christmas,where he has a longer coat and a longer beard.

In France, he's known as Pere Noel.

In Germany, children get presents from Christindl, the Christ Child.

In Morocco he is known as Black Peter.

In Italy he is called Babbo Natale, which means Father Christmas.

In Japan, Santa Claus is called Santa Claus or just "Santa". Children
often call him "Santa no ojisan," which means "Uncle Santa."

Actually the old "cult" of Santa Claus incorporates many traditions:
Christian and Pagan, Old Catholic, Scandinavian, Dutch, German and
English.

In the Netherlands, he is called Kerstman.

In Sweden Jultomten visits the evening before Christmas day, pulling a
big bag of julklappar (Christmas presents) in the deep snow.

Sinter Klaas in Dutch. He rides a white horse, leaving gifts in wooden
shoes.

In Scandinavia and Germany, Santa comes on the 24th of December,
knocking on the door like normal people.

In Finland, he is called Joulupukki. Finland is one of the few countries where kids actually see Father Christmas in the act of delivering the presents and probably the only country where the Saint really does ask the children if they behaved during the year.

Joulupukki literally means Yule Buck. This Old pagan tradition remained
strong in Finland but got a Christian flavor as time went by. Pagan people used to have festivities to ward off evil spirits. These spirits of darkness wore goat skins and horns. In the beginning this creature didn't give presents but demanded them. The Christmas Goat was an ugly creature and frightened children.

It is unclear how this personality was transformed into the benevolent
Father Christmas. Nowadays the only remaining feature is the name. The
process was probably a continuous amalgamation of many old folk customs and beliefs from varied sources. One can speak of a Christmas pageant tradition consisting of many personages with roles partly Christian, partly pagan: A white-bearded saint, the Devil, demons, house gnomes, whatnot.

Nowadays the Joulupukki of Finland resembles the American Santa Claus.

This is actually really interesting. I did some volunteer work (by my own volition by the way) and spoke with many people in my spare time from just about every culture and race. My findings were that in every culture I spoke with, they have some sort of holiday around the end of the year with a type of Santa! I think you have accurate info there, Yogs.