Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop, is considered the patron saint of New Amsterdam, what would later become New York City.

In the 1600s, the Dutch West India Company had a goal: profit.

Yet colonists also had a fascination with Saint Nicholas, also known as Sinterklaas. Based on a historically real person who died on December 6, Sinterklaas came to represent children … and … all sorts of wayward sinners, including sailors, merchants, thieves, beer makers, single people, and students. 

Could you not ask for a more appropriate saint for the area?

In Knickerbocker's History of New York, published on December 6, 1809, author Washington Irving further developed Saint Nicholas as a character unique to the city’s earliest days.

Sinterklaas Festival Day is still celebrated in the Hudson Valley, a playground for other Irving characters, including Ichabod Crane and Rip Van Winkle. 

Today in New York City, St. Nicholas is represented as Santa Claus, a rosy-cheeked harbinger of joy. Even hardened New Yorkers get sappy at the sight of a corner Kringle.

And St. Nicholas’ roots here are deep. Santa’s origins include commercialism, politics, religion, true altruism, and, well, commercialism.

Did you enjoy watching the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center? Well, a site on 48th and Fifth Avenue was once home to St. Nicholas Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. The sale of the church made way for the Sinclair Oil Company, a property within Rockefeller Center.

Before the church was torn down in 1949, it housed the oldest congregation in Manhattan dating back to 1628.

Theodore Roosevelt went to church there.

Today, Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church is the oldest corporation in the United States. Its 1696 charter dates back to English rulers William and Mary.

I am a licensed NYC tour guide and the founding president of the New York City Santas. I am a history nerd who can give interesting onsite or online Santa history tours.

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