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OVERVIEW OF SANTAS LIST DAY
Conventionally Santa Claus is portrayed as a kindly, round-bellied, merry, bespectacled man in a red suit trimmed with white fur, with a long white beard. On Christmas Eve, he rides in his flying sleigh lifted by reindeer from house to house to give presents to children. To get inside the house, he comes down the chimney and lands in the fireplace. During the rest of the year he lives together with his wife Mrs. Claus and his elves who serve as his toy production staff. His home is usually given as either the North Pole in the US and Canada, Korvatunturi in Finnish Lapland, Dalecarlia in Sweden, Greenland, or Caesarea when identified as Saint Basil; traditions vary.
Among virtually all adults the nonexistence of Santa Claus is a given, but many young children believe strongly in his existence. A majority of parents, at least in English and Dutch-speaking households that celebrate Christmas, either actively attempt to convince their children of Santa's existence, or at least keep the source of their children's presents a secret from them and so fail to disprove the myth. Children who believe in the existence of Santa often tend to lose such beliefs by early primary school, as their ability to distinguish fantasy from reality improves and older children disillusion them.
There is an occasional controversy in parenting as to whether it is appropriate to perpetuate the myth of Santa Claus to children. Some parents are concerned that it is wrong to lie to children and that it can be traumatic to learn that there is no Santa Claus. Other parents believe that it is no more harmful than any other folk tale, and that it can help children gain confidence in their maturity in themselves to discover the "secret" of his existence. Furthermore, many children, upon being disillusioned, often maintain the pretense for younger siblings so they can enjoy the belief themselves for a bit longer.
HISTORY OF SANTAS LIST DAY
Historically, one of the first artists to capture Santa Claus' image as we know him today was Thomas Nast, an American cartoonist of the 19th century. In 1862, a picture of Santa illustrated by Nast appeared in Harper's Weekly. It is believed the inspiration for his image came from a mythical German character called Pelznickel (Furry Nicholas) who visited naughty children in their sleep. Urban legend has it that Santa Claus in his current guise (particularly his red and white attire) was created by Haddon Sundblom, an artist working for The Coca-Cola Company, but this is in fact false; the modern image of Santa Claus was already established in the 1920s, years before Sundblom painted the first Coke-promoting Santa1. Nevertheless, Santa Claus and Coca-Cola are still closely associated, and to this day, Santa Claus still appears on Coca-Cola products and advertisements each year around Christmas time.
SANTAS LIST DAY TRIVIA
The average velocity of Santa Claus (how fast does he travel?)
A calculation of the average velocity of Santa Claus can be done along these lines: Assume a world population of 6 billion people, with an average of 3 people per household. Use 1.5 × 108 square kilometers of land on the earth. This gives an average household density of 10 households per square kilometer, with approximately 350 m between each household in a uniform geometric distribution. Assuming he goes linearly from house to house, and takes 24 hours to cover the distance, we find that he covers 700 billion meters in 86,400 seconds, a velocity of 8 million meters per second, or .03 times the speed of light.
Source: The English Wikipedia
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