It wasn't Santa (Saint Nicholas) himself, though, but his sidekick.I think a lot of the Santa stories from Europe were supposed to be scary, weren't they? There seems to have been a lot of beating bad children and stuffing them into sacks going on in that part of the world.
Santa's evil sidekick? Who knew? | Reuters
In Germany, Santa’s Sidekick Is a Cloven-Hooved, Child-Whipping Demon | Smart News | Smithsonian