Interesting post, that makes me think about the following.

I'm Dutch and we have a celebration in Holland called Sinterklaas.

Sinterklaas or Sint Nicolaas is a traditional figure based on Saint Nicholas. Other names for the figure include De Sint ("The Saint"), De Goedheiligman ("The Good Holy Man"), and De Goede Sint ("The Good Saint") in Dutch

Sinterklaas is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on the night before Saint Nicholas Day (5 December) in the Netherlands and on the morning of 6 December, Saint Nicholas Day itself, in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Northern France (French Flanders, Lorraine and Artois). He is also well known in territories of the former Dutch Empire, including Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao.

Sinterklaas is an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long, full beard. He wears a long red cape or chasuble over a traditional white bishop's alb and sometimes red stola, dons a red mitre and ruby ring, and holds a gold-coloured crosier, a long ceremonial shepherd's staff with a fancy curled top.

He traditionally rides a white horse. In the Netherlands, the horse is called Amerigo, and in Belgium, it is named Slecht Weer Vandaag, meaning "Bad Weather Today".

Sinterklaas carries a big book that tells whether each child has been good or naughty in the past year.

Zwarte Piet (Black Pete, plural Zwarte Pieten) is a companion of Sinterklaas, usually portrayed by a man in blackface with black curly hair, dressed up like a 17th-century page in colourful dress, often sporting a lace collar and a feathered cap. He first appears in print as the nameless servant of Saint Nicholas in Sint Nikolaas en zijn knecht (St. Nicholas and His Servant), published in 1850 by Amsterdam schoolteacher Jan Schenkman; but the tradition appears to date back at least as far as the early 19th Century.

Sinterklaas and his Black Pete usually carry a bag which contains candy for nice children and a roe, a chimney sweep's broom made of willow branches, used to spank naughty children. Some of the older Sinterklaas songs make mention of naughty children being put in the bag and being taken back to Spain.

There are various explanations of the origin of Zwarte Piet. One is that Saint Nicholas liberated an Ethiopian slave boy called Pieter from a Myra market, and the boy was so grateful he decided to stay with Saint Nicholas as a helper.

In modern adaptations for television, the Saint has developed a Piet for every function: there is a head Piet (Hoofdpiet), a navigation Piet (wegwijspiet) to navigate the steamboat from Spain to the Netherlands, a packing Piet (pakjespiet) to pack all the gifts, an acrobatic Piet to climb roofs and stuff presents down the chimney, or to climb down the chimneys themselves. Over the years many stories have been added, and Zwarte Piet has developed from a rather unintelligent helper into a valuable assistant to the absent-minded Saint.

Traditionally Zwarte Piet's face is said to be black because he is a Moor from Spain. Today, some prefer to say that his face is blackened with soot, as he has to climb through chimneys to deliver his gifts. The figure of Zwarte Piet is considered by some to be racist. Verene Shepherd, chair of United Nations' Working Group on people of African descent, stated in an interview with the Dutch television news program EEN Vandaag on 22 October 2013 that, "The working group cannot understand why it is that the people in The Netherlands cannot see that it is a throwback to slavery . . . .As a black person I feel, that I, if I were living in The Netherlands, I would object to it." The working group started investigations in 2012 and sent questions to the Dutch UN representative in January 2013 .However, after a more thorough investigation it was announced that the UN would drop any 'racism' related charges against the Dutch.

In a 2013 survey, 92% of the Dutch public did not perceive Zwarte Piet as racist or associate him with slavery, and 91% were opposed to altering the character's appearance. Nevertheless, beginning in 2013, several Dutch retail chains including Hema and V&D began changing their seasonal Sinterklaas products and displays in order to include a revised version of Zwarte Piet without the makeup or other racially sensitive characteristics.

More can be read on Wikipedia.

Big discussions are still going on about this and a lot of the Dutch are very upset that a tradition that has been enjoyed by so many children and adults, black and white, has now turned into a big debate on racism.

To the Dutch it's the same as father Christmas with his elves. I'm sure no one would like to see that tradition changed.