FATHER CHRISTMAS ALIas santa clause

FATHER CHRISTMAS, ALIAS SANTA CLAUS
  Father Christmas has been described as “the most successful promotion story since Jesus Christ.” But who was he? According to The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain, he has been “known as a vague personification of the [Christmas] season since at least the 15th century . . . and appears in approximately his modern garb in a woodcut of 1653: but ‘Santa’s’ Christmas Eve visits, his habit of descending chimneys to fill stockings (or, more ambitiously, pillow cases) and his reindeer-drawn sleigh all derive from that melting pot of traditions, the USA. His character there was blended from European legends about the 4th-century St Nicholas of Myra (who saved three maidens from prostitution by a surreptitious midnight gift of dowry money, and who as Sinte Klaas filled the shoes of Dutch-American children on 6 December, his feast day); the German-American Krisskringle (who rewarded good and punished bad children); and Scandinavian or Russian tales about North-Pole-dwelling wizards. . . . This composite American Santa quietly recrossed the Atlantic during the 1870s: since when, his reputation apparently undamaged by numerous commercial impersonators, he has increasingly provided a purely secular focus for ‘the children’s Christmas’.”
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CHRISTMAS EVERGREENS
  Prominent among Christmas decorations are holly, ivy, and mistletoe, described as “magical plants bearing fruit in a dead season.” But why these particular evergreens? Although some believe that red holly berries represent Christ’s blood and its prickly leaves symbolize the “crown out of thorns” that Pontius Pilate’s soldiers placed mockingly on Jesus’ head, pagans viewed the holly’s shining leaves and berries as a masculine symbol of eternal life. (Matthew 27:29) They looked on ivy as a feminine life-symbol of immortality. Holly and ivy together became their fertility symbol. Mistletoe’s pagan associations are still so strong that the book The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain states: “No church decorator will tolerate it—except at York Minster.” Most well-known of all evergreens is the Christmas tree, long featured in German traditions and popularized in Britain by Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, and which became the focus of Christmas family celebrations. Since 1947, Norway’s capital, Oslo, has sent a gift Christmas tree for display in London’s Trafalgar Square.