Christmas century, Saint Nicholas was well known in the Netherlands, and the practice of gift-giving in his name spread to other parts of central and southern Europe. At the Reformation in 16th–17th-century Europe, many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ Child or "Christkindl", corrupted in English to Kris Kringle, and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve. The modern popular image of Santa Claus, however, was created in the United States, and in particular in New York. The transformation was accomplished with the aid of notable contributors including Washington Irving and the German-American cartoonist
Jack Callahan (cartoonist) Jack Callahan (cartoonist) John Thomas "Jack" Callahan (December 14, 1888 – August 24, 1954), was a noted cartoonist during the early decades of the 20th century, being also credited for drawing the diagram for the first American crossword. Apart from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, little else is known about his early life. In the early 1910s he began working for the "New York World", first at the art department before becoming the paper's "crossword artist". By the middle of the decade he was doing editorial cartoons and a handful of comic strips such as "Flivvers" and "When You