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Santa Claus is known by many names including Saint Nicholas, Santa, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, and Kris Kringle.
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Santa Claus today is a combination of a historical Greek gift-giver of Myra (4th century) named Saint Nicholas, and Father Christmas (16th century).
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Saint Nicholas, who was a 4th century gift giver in Myra, is preserved in Bari, Italy.
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Coca-Cola is partially responsible for popularizing the image of Santa Claus that we still picture today, with the red suit and white beard and black boots and belt.
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Before Coca-Cola used Santa Clause's image with the red suit White Rock Beverages had already done this. Before White Rock, Puck Magazine had shown Santa similar to how he is depicted today. Coca-Cola is often thought to be the first however because of its advertising reach.
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Before wearing the red suit Santa Claus wore all sorts of different colors including green, blue, brown etc...
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Western traditions on Christmas Eve to prepare for Santa's arrival often include leaving out milk and cookies, hanging stockings over the fireplace, and reading Christmas stories.
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Some countries leave things other than milk and cookies. He gets beer or sherry in Britain and Australia, rice porridge in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and mince pies of Christmas pudding in Ireland.
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In Hungary Santa comes on December 5th and leaves gifts to be opened December 6th. On Christmas Eve in Hungary Little Jesus leaves gifts instead of Santa Claus.
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Santa Claus has a wife named Mrs. Claus. He has 9 reindeers pulling his flying sleigh.
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Santa Claus' favorite line is, "Ho, ho, ho!"
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Santa Claus is believed to live at the North Pole.
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At the North Pole Santa has a workshop where he employs elves to create the toys for all the children.
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The reason that Santa started coming in through the chimney was because snow was often blocking the doorway so it was easier to drop down through the chimney on the roof.
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Santa moves fast. In order to deliver presents to every child around the world on Christmas Eve he visits 5,000 houses a second. That's why kids never see him. He's too fast.
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Santa Claus has been spotted a lot in the last few years on the streets in Toronto, Ontario's Yorkdale Mall. He is known as Fashion Santa and is ditching the traditional Santa costume in favor of more stylish clothing. He still wears his white beard.
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