How did Santa Claus come to be?

He started out as St. Nicholas, a first-century monk who left an anonymous gift to keep a man's daughters from having to become prostitutes to earn money. His legend got mixed in with the myth of the pagan god Wotan, who at ear's end traveled around judging whether people had been good or evil the past year. He got his current name from the Dutch name for St. Nicholas, "Santa Klaus", and really got popular after the poem "A Visit From Saint Nicholas" was published in the mid 19th century.