Santa is an amalgam of several folk stories. Saint Nicholas was a Greek Christian Bishop who lived around 200 CE in the city of Patara, in what is modern day Turkey. However, ethnically Turkic people did not arrive in the region until roughly the 5th century (at lease according to modern historical consensus, which is still debated). Not that it really matters, because “Hellenic” has always been more of a culture than a phenotype.

There are no contemporaneous writings of his life, but legends have him at the First Council of Nicea and performing miracles of generosity, like giving three bags of gold to a father of three daughters so that, rather than sell them into prostitution, he could pay dowry to men that would take them as wives. He also resurrected some children who had been murdered and pickled by a butcher looking to sell them as pork. Y’know, wholesome Christian shit.

It is said that he was the son of wealthy Greek Chrisitans, so he might have had fair skin or blue eyes, but living in a coastal city and making pilgrimmages to Syria and Egypt, he certainly would have had at least a dark tan. Of course there’s no way to know for sure, but anything is possible. Geographically, it’s unlikely he ever saw more than a flurry of snow unless he was climbing mountains.

The feast of Saint Nicholas was celebrated in early December, on or around the 6th, and became a significant holiday in Dutch and German churches, where Sint Nikolas became Sinterklas. That’s also where the legend acquired many of the accessories we associate with the character now, like warm winter clothing, rosy cheeks, and reindeer pulling a sleigh. Meanwhile, the Roman Christiam church adopted several pagan traditions like yule logs, saturnalia, bacchanalia, decorating evergreen trees, holly and mistletoe, etc.