24 December: Santa Claus

It's Christmas Eve. Children everywhere are waiting eagerly for a visit from Father Christmas, aka Santa Claus. Here are ten facts about him to read while you wait.

1. You probably know Santa Claus evolved from St Nicholas, but you may not know that he's also said to have absorbed some elements of the god Wodan, who is said to have led a wild hunt across the sky during the destival of Yule.
2. Personifications of Christmas date back to the 15th century, but they didn't look like the Father Christmas we know today. His various incarnations carried bread and a leg of lamb; wore garters, a doublet and hose and had a long, thin beard; rode a Goat. By the 18th century he was mostly portrayed as an elderly fat man with white hair, but tended to wear Green rather than red. Also, he was associated more with adult fun and revelry at Christmas time than with giving gifts to children.
3. Santa owes much of his current persona to the poem, A Visit From Saint Nicholas, aka "The Night Before Christmas". Even then, he might be wearing any colour clothing - not only red, but green, white, Brown or blue. His red attire was fixed in the public's mind thanks to a Coca Cola advertising campaign in 1931.
4. In English speaking countries, Santa's laugh, "Ho Ho Ho" is one of his most important attributes. In Canada, Santa has been assigned the Postcode H0H 0H0.
5. Where Santa actually lives is up for debate. A general concensus seems to be that he lives at the North Pole, but many countries in Northern latitudes like to claim that Father Christmas resides within their borders. Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Belarus all make such claims. So does Alaska, where there is a town called North Pole. A Hamburger restaurant in the town claims to have a fly through service for sleighs.
6. Writing letters to Santa with a list of desired Christmas gifts is a long established tradition. At one time, the way to make sure Santa got the letter was to burn it on the fire so the letter would be magically wafted up the chimney and the wind would blow it to Santa. In Latin America, kids tie their letters to Helium balloons. Nowadays many countries' postal services have incorporated special addresses where children can write to Santa and receive a reply. And they do - in the UK in 2006 750,000 letters were received. It's even possible to e-mail Santa these days, but writing an actual letter is still more popular among children. Studies have shown that girls write longer letters to Father Christmas than boys, and they're more likely to ask for presents for other people and refer to the meaning and spirit of Christmas.
7. Another way to communicate to Father Christmas what you might want is to go visit him in a Department store. This tradition began back in 1890 as a marketing tool. The first person to play Santa in a department store was James Edgar. Today, you can get professional training to be a Santa, including how to shape a Beard, how to pose for photos and how to dress.
8. The idea of a Mrs Claus first appeared in 1849 in a short story by James Rees, but didn't really catch on until 1889 when Katherine Lee Bates published a poem called "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride". "Goody" is short for "Good Wife", an old fashioned way of saying "Mrs".
9. Given the number of children in the world, Santa has to call at 842 million households on Christmas Eve, which involves travelling 218 million miles. In order to get it all done it would be necessary for Santa to travel at 1,280 miles a second, and spend just one millisecond at each house. The way Time zones work mean that he'd have 36 hours rather than 24 to get it done. His sleigh would weigh more than 400,000 tons at the start of his epic trip, which would mean he'd need 360,000 Reindeer, not just the traditional eight. As for all the treats left for him, they amount to billions of calories, and Santa would have to jog for 109 centuries to burn it all off.
10. Santa's flying reindeer may have originated from people tripping on hallucinogenic mushrooms.

A Christmas Novella

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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