Aren't luttle children taught to pray to Santa Claus, to write him letters pleading to him for fill their needs?   (I need a new bicycle. Will you find me a new Daddy? Help my little sister to get well for Christmas)   
    To much of the world's population, Santa Claus is as much associated with Christmas as is the Baby Jesus.  There are few little children in the U.S, who are not taught to believe in him.    
     Santa Claus began his reign as the gift-bringing St. Nicholas of the German and Dutch settlers in North America.   It was under the name St. Nicholas, that he was made famous in a poem attributed to Clark Moore, The Night before Christmas, published in 1823.   
    We are able to trace Santa Claus prior to 1823 to an origin to the 15th century, at which time he was known as Father Christmas, a minor figure in the mummers' plays of the mid-winter season. Father Christmas was trim and sober, unlike Moore's St. Nicholas. By the 1890's he had had melted and become more "jolly".  In the 1930s, with the aid of Coca Cola commercials, he became the familiar Santa we know today.   
    To trace this Christmas hero back beyond the 15th century, we should  let us list his bestknown attributes in order to recognize him under some other name. Here are the characteristics generally attributed to Santa Claus:             

     1) He has a white beard.             
     2) He is dressed in red.
     3) He loves children.             
     4) He is associated with gift-giving.             
    5) He is supposed to travel around the world almost instantly as he brings gifts to homes everywhere.            
     6) He is very old, with a white beard.

Those are Santa's attributes. Here are the abilities of a certain well-known deity.             

    1) His head and his hair were white as wool. (Rev. 1:1 4)            
    2) And he was clothed with a venture dipped in blood. (Rev. 1 9:1 3)
    3) There were brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray 'Suffer little children, and forbid them not.' (Matt. 19:13-14) Don't these verses remind you of the children queuing up to see Santa Claus?
    4) When they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matt. 2:1)
    5) anyone who was born at least 2000 years ago certainly is old.

     He's making a list and checking it twice.

     He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice.

     Santa Claus is coming to. town! (popular song)

     Doesn't that sound like the second coming of Jesus Christ as described by the fundamentalist Christians? These two, when described lke this, do seem quite similar.

     The characcter we recognize as Santa Claus came into being thousands of years before Jesus. At one time he was then known as Pan or Dionysius. His holiday was held at various times of the year, sometime between the autumnal and vernal equinoxes. Often it was held during the Saturnalia, the Roman feast of mid-winter. The Saturnalia involved the wildest debauchery, and was a festival worthy of Pan himself. It was a festival of merrymaking and the exchange of gifts. Libanius, a Greek writer of the fourth century, gives an account of the celebration:      
    "There is food everywhere, heavy rich food. And laughter. A positive urge to spend seizes on everyone, so that people who have taken pleasure in saving the whole year, now think it's a good idea to squander. The streets are full of people staggering under the load of gifts."      
    This sounds exactly like a Christmas celebration. It is not it is a Saturnalia celebration

       Could it be that the character behind the mythical Santa Claus is not only the equally mythical Jesus, but akso the ancient god, Pan, for whom the Saturnalia scelebrted?