It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a fat man in a sled!?!

Santa Claus. That’s all one needs to say and so many images come to mind. Christmas, presents, food, school vacation, the list goes on and on. But, where did this overweight Caucasian guy, with too much facial hair and who wears a red and white suit originate from?

Many of you may wonder who cares. How does this impact my life? I’m not saying that without Santa Claus in your life it would take a dramatic flip, but small little things that you are used to around the holiday season would be gone. Such as Christmas carols involving Santa, anything that has a Santa-like character on it, and most likely Christmas presents.

Contrary to the popular urban legends of Coca-Cola inventing Santa, Santa Claus actually is a mispronunciation of the Dutch folklore character Sinterklaas; who was helped by one servant (zwarte piet) in the delivery of candy or presents in our case. But, when the Canadians reinstated the character Sinterklaas in 1945, they decided that if having one zwarte piet, a servant to Sinterklaas had, was fun, then having more than one servant (zwarte pieten) would be even better. In today’s time these zwarte pieten are Santa’s Elves. Sinterklaas had a flying horse so that he could find the houses of the children and either Sinterklaas or the zwarte pieten would climb down into the houses through the chimney.

In Germany the pagan god Oden, similar to the Dutch Sinterklaas, would fly on his white horse during the night observing people, later deciding who would "prosper" and who would "perish". A majority of you would have heard from a parent/guardian that Santa flies in a sled being pulled by reindeer, and that he decides who has been “naughty” or “nice”.

At one time “Santa Claus” was actually a real person and was of the Christian faith. In truth, Santa Claus went by the name of Saint Nicholas, creating today’s optional names for Santa Claus: Saint Nicholas or Saint Nick. Saint Nicholas used to give gifts to the poor, very much so like the donations of toys or food we give during the winter/Christmas season.

In the past depictions of Santa Claus did not always include him wearing a read and white outfit with a thick black belt. Actually, Santa used to be in many different colors, it wasn't until Santa was shown wearing a red suit on a 1988 postcard did red become the popular color, that color was further established by Coca-Cola when they included a red suit wearing Santa in their advertisements.

The Christmas season was not so materialistic in past times. Today, all people care about is themselves and what gifts or presents they may receive, the celebration of Christmas has changed from donating to those less fortunate to a world-wide acceptation of greed- as long as it’s only once a year of course!