Yes, there really was a Saint Nicholas!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12/21/turkey.saint.nicholas/index.html?hpt=C2

The land Saint Nicholas is originally from rarely sees snowflakes -- it is a village of palm trees and orange groves on the Mediterranean Sea in what is modern-day Turkey. Nicholas, patron saint of sailors and children, lived and died there nearly 18 centuries ago.