35 Facts About Santa

Santa Claus, known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary character originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts on Christmas Eve of toys and candy or coal or nothing, depending on whether they are "naughty or nice".

Santa supposedly accomplishes this with the aid of Christmas elves, who make the toys in his workshop, often said to be at the North Pole, and flying reindeer who pull his sleigh through the air.

Santa is generally depicted as a portly, jolly, white-bearded man, often with spectacles, wearing a red coat with white fur collar and cuffs, white-fur-cuffed red trousers, red hat with white fur, and black leather belt and boots, carrying a bag full of gifts for children.

Santa is commonly portrayed as laughing in a way that sounds like "ho ho ho".

Santa was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity.

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Santa typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, bringing peace, joy, good food and wine and revelry.

Santa Claus is known as de Kerstman in Dutch and Pere Noel in French.

Odin, transformed into Father Christmas, then Santa Claus, prospered with St Nicholas and the Christchild, became a leading player on the Christmas stage.

Santa later appears in The Road to Oz as an honored guest at Ozma's birthday party, stated to be famous and beloved enough for everyone to bow even before he is announced as "The most Mighty and Loyal Friend of Children, His Supreme Highness – Santa Claus".

Images of Santa Claus were conveyed through Haddon Sundblom's depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company's Christmas advertising in the 1930s.

The image spawned urban legends that Santa Claus was invented by The Coca-Cola Company or that Santa wears red and white because they are the colors used to promote the Coca-Cola brand.

In some images from the early 20th century, Santa was depicted as personally making his toys by hand in a small workshop like a craftsman.

Unbeknownst to many, Santa actually has to use many sleighs and fake Santa drivers to get the job done Christmas Eve, and the transportation management system optimally builds thousands of consolidated sacks that maximize cube utilization and minimize total air miles.

Santa Claus is a meetable character at all of the Disney Parks and Resorts during the Holiday season, and can be seen during various parades throughout the parks.

Santa has been described as a positive male cultural icon:.

Santa is really the only cultural icon we have who's male, does not carry a gun, and is all about peace, joy, giving, and caring for other people.

Santa is much more organic, integral, connected to the past, and therefore connected to the future.

Many television commercials, comic strips and other media depict this as a sort of humorous business, with Santa's elves acting as a sometimes mischievously disgruntled workforce, cracking jokes and pulling pranks on their boss.

For instance, a Bloom County story from 15 December 1981 through 24 December 1981 has Santa rejecting the demands of PETCO for higher wages, a hot tub in the locker room, and "short broads, " with the elves then going on strike.

Santa later lost the championship to R-Truth via a roll-up at the Lincoln Center.

Tradition of Santa Claus being said to enter dwellings through the chimney is shared by many European seasonal gift-givers.

Laughter of Santa Claus has long been an important attribute by which the character is identified, but it does not appear in many non-English-speaking countries.

In North American tradition, Santa is said to live at the North Pole, which according to Canada Post lies within Canadian jurisdiction in postal code H0H 0H0.

In France, Santa is believed to reside in 1 Chemin des Nuages, Pole Nord.

Actors portraying Santa Claus appear in the weeks before Christmas in department stores or shopping malls, or at parties.

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The actor dressed up as Santa is usually helped by other actors dressed as elves or other creatures of folklore associated with Santa.

Santa's function is either to promote the store's image by distributing small gifts to children, or to provide a seasonal experience to children by listening to their wishlist while having them sit on his knee.

Santa's address is: Santa Claus, North Pole, Canada, H0H 0H0; no postage is required.

Santa receives over 600,000 letters every year from over 198 countries with Togo being the most recent country added to the list.

Origins of the NORAD Tracks Santa programme began in the United States in 1955, when a Sears Roebuck store in Colorado Springs, Colorado, gave children a number to call a "Santa hotline".

The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first call for Santa and responded by claiming to children that there were signs on the radar that Santa was indeed heading south from the North Pole.

Santa Claus has partial Christian roots in Saint Nicholas, particularly in the high church denominations that practice the veneration of him, in addition to other saints.

Reverend Paul Nedergaard, a clergyman in Copenhagen, Denmark, attracted controversy in 1958 when he declared Santa to be a "heathen goblin" after Santa's image was used on the annual Christmas stamp for a Danish children's welfare organization.

Santa had been portrayed in a red suit in the 19th century by Thomas Nast among others.

Imaginative play, in which children know that Santa Claus is only a character in a story, but pretend that he is real, just like they pretend that superheroes or other fictional characters are real, is valuable.