Yes, it is the day that kindly old Saint Nicholas fills the footware of good little girls and boys with treats [or his assistants beat the evil out of bad children, depending on the local customs – they didn’t just leave the sticks – in some places they use them.] Don’t forget the carrot if he rides a horse in your area.
He is the patron saint of Russian merchants and pawnbrokers (three gold balls are one of the symbols associated with him).
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Well, well. After 64 years I finally learn why the Dutch celebrate Kerstmis a couple of weeks before the US does. The real mystery, I guess, is why you all celebrate it so late!
Basically, the Puritans & Pilgrim in the Massachusetts Bay Colony didn’t tolerate any saints or decorations. They fined people who celebrated anything, including Christmas. Popular sentiment reestablished Christmas, but saints’ days/feasts/masses never made the cut of respectability among the Protestant majority. With the diversity of the current US population, getting anything done in December is a bit of a lost cause.
Well, yes, but the Lowlands get in trouble these days over “Black Pete”.