Thread: Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays???
View Single Post
  #14  
Old December 22nd 05, 02:33 PM posted to rec.travel.europe,rec.travel.air,rec.autos.driving,misc.consumers
Des Small
external usenet poster
  
Posts: n/a
Default Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays???
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco 24h offy) writes:

> Des Small > wrote:
>
> []
> > Santa Claus - including the name - is pre-Christian?
>
> There's a murky history to Santa Claus, and some of the origins are
> attributed to pre-christian myth, much like the rest of Christianity!

There's a murky enough _present_ if you compare USian Coca-Claus, the
Dutch Sinterklaas, the Icelandic Christmas Lads and the Swedish
Tomten, all of whom have conspicuously different habits and customs.

> I'm not going to cite a reference though!

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus>

Of course, it doesn't give sources for the alleged Germanic folklore.
(And the 'Pedia's Christmas tree article is significantly different in
German, French, Swedish and English, none of which gives adequate
sources for their claimed "first" historical trees.)

Des
Ads