What are your December and New Year's Traditions?

This is my 150th post.

Happy Holidays. What different December and New Year’s traditions are you celebrating?

I understand that many cultures around the world have Almsgiving, Thanksgiving, or something similar. American Thanksgiving is in November. Canadian Thanksgiving is in October.

In the county that I live in, we have a Christmas parade on about the first weekend in December.

In America, December 7th is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

I live less than a mile from where Lew Wallace wrote Ben Hur. In Ben Hur and in the Gospel of Matthew, there’s a star of Bethlehem. In the pamphlet, “How I Came To Write Ben Hur” By Lew Wallace, he says that the only way that the star could have led the 3 wise men to the baby Jesus would be if it was a speaking star and that he doesn’t believe it.

One Astronomy theory about the star of Bethlehem is that Jupiter, Venus, and a star that I can’t remember if it’s Regulus or Arcturus lined up to appear to be one star in about 6 or 5 BC.

When I was 11, we celebrated Advent, the 24 days before Christmas. I was given a new little collectible Christmas ornament every day from December 1 to December 24th.

On Christmas Eve, we drive about 60 miles to my grandparents'. We stay overnight and celebrate Christmas the next day on both my Mom’s and Dad’s sides of the family.

In my family, we have Christmas stockings. They are filled up with oranges, nuts, collectible coins, chocolate coins, little toys, candy, gift certificates, and things like that.

My brother-in-law’s mother is Italian. Instead of Santa Claus, they have Bo-fon-a (probably spelled wrong). Bofona is a witch that leaves toys in children’s shoes and I guess maybe also in the stockings.

In the American version of the Santa Claus story, he has 8 reindeer and he adds Rudolph, the 9th reindeer. In the Norse Mythology version which came first, Odin flies across the sky on his horse with 8 legs. The 8 legs became 8 reindeer in traditions over time.

Greek (Eastern Orthodox) Christians celebrate gift giving on Three Kings Day (January 6). For whatever reason, they also have Easter on a different week than Catholics do.

In Spain and probably also Puerto Rico, they have the 3 wise men giving gifts to children instead of Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, The South American Papa Noel, or the northern European Sinter Class. I understand that in Japan that they have a character with a name that translates to Santa Claus and dresses like Santa. I think that in Japan they have a cake for Christmas.

Americans have Christmas trees. The tradition goes back to Germany or Victorian England. Americans also have poinsettias, which strangely enough are from Mexico instead of the nativity scene of Bethlehem, West Bank!?

December 26th is Boxing Day in Canada. They give gifts in boxes. December 26th is St. Stephen’s Day for Catholics. I believe that the tradition is that St Stephen was martyred by being pushed off of a cliff by sort-of a first century AD lynch mob. I don’t know much else about him other than he never met Jesus and never heard him preach.

In Iran they celebrate Solstice. The Solstice is also the birthday of the Persian Mitra (The Roman Mithras) light and solar calendar god. Mithraism was so popular that if the story of Jesus never had traveled throughout Europe then Mithraism would be the most common religion in Europe. Egyptians and other cultures have Sun Gods born on the Solstice and worshipped on “Sun”day. Originally the Sabbath for Jews was on Saturday and Constantine changed this. Constantine first worshipped the Sun God Apollo.

I thought I saw on tv that nobody is allowed to be inside the Stonehenge anymore for Sunrise on the Winter Solstice when the light lines up with the stones. My opinion is that the Stonehenge people worshipped a calendar, light, or fertility deity on the Winter Solstice.

We were talking about December Holidays. Somebody mentioned the Festivus episode of Seinfeld. It also was said that Festivus is a real holiday that started in the 1970s!? I wouldn’t know if Festivus is religious or secular. I’ve heard that there’s now a secular holiday called “Human Light!?” I know little about this.

I understand that Siks, Jains, or Hindus celebrate Tet in December or January. I know very little about this Holiday.

I think that Northern Europeans Celebrate Yule or Yuletide.

I have this book, “The Christmas Sky” by Franklyn Mansfield Branley and Stephen Fieser. It’s written as if Jesus was a real baby born in Bethlehem but the time frame and Star of Bethlehem are different. If Jesus was a real baby, he would have been born in the Spring of 5 or 6 BC partly because King Herod would have died in 4 BC. Christmas replaced the rival Roman Holiday of Saturnalia which had gift giving on the day of the Solstice. Or if you believe that the Star of Bethlehem was Halley’s Comet, then Jesus was born in 11 BC.

Black Americans have Kwanzaa starting on December 26. I don’t want to try to explain it because I don’t know Swahili, but they light a new candle every day, sort of like Hanukkah.

Jews from Israel, America, and other places celebrate Hanukkah in December. It begins on a different day every year because of the lunar calendar.

Muslims celebrate Ramadan, which sometimes begins in December. I hope I’m not confusing Eid El Fitr with a different holiday or spelling it wrong, but they also have a holiday that’s sometimes in December about Abraham preparing his son Isaac or Ishmael for the sacrifice. Christians and Jews have the same story almost word for word and it’s a rather disturbing story that God told your father to sacrifice you.

Isaac Newton and Robert Ripley from “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” were born on Christmas. Rod Serling, the author of the Twilight Zone was born on Christmas. Somebody was telling me that a baseball player was born on Christmas.

New Yorkers watch a ball with over 200 or so lights slide down a pole and hit a switch within about a second of midnight for the New Year. If you live in Chicago’s time zone this is no big deal because it’s just 11 pm.

I think that the Chinese have New Year’s Day in January by the Lunar Calendar.

I know a lady that was born on December 19th, the same as her mother’s birthday.

Sorry for this kind-of annoying post.

We have a lot people on this forum from all over Europe, Australia, and America, so please tell us your other December or New Year's traditions. Also tell me if your birthday is on Christmas.

Edit: Santa Claus is possibly based off of Saint Myrna, the patron Saint of sailors and children, who lived in Turkey. He had adopted daughters. He threw a bag of gold coins into their window so that they wouldn't have to sell themselves into prostitution. They possibly hung their stockings that they wore next to the chimney to dry, starting the stockings tradition.

I don't think I have that much of an explanation.
On Thanksgiving, for some reason, I end up having a fight. Thanksgiving madness?
On every Christmas I always get disapointed... not nessesarily at the presents.... just disapointed at something.

Dark_wizzie wrote:...On every Christmas I always get disapointed... not nessesarily at the presents.... just disapointed at something.

I'm not a Psychologist or Psychiatrist, so I can't do a diagnosis of people. Look up "Seasonal Affective Disorder," or "SAD," or "Cabin Fever." It's when people are depressed that that the nights are longer and the days are shorter. It's not just Psychological, it's also chemical. Sunlight on the skin produces vitamin A or D, which helps the mood. Because of the tilt of the northern hemisphere, December 20th or 21st has the shortest daylight of the year in the northern hemisphere. It's believed that Cabin Fever is more common in countries like Norway that are closer to The North Pole. A night at the poles is 6 months. However, I don't know if that's what's going on with you. A teacher at one of my schools said that she thinks that she has Seasonal Affective Disorder.

I think that's partly what the celebrations of New Year's Day or Solstice were about in ancient times in places like The Roman Empire or Persia. I thought that they had the Winter Solstice, New Year's day, and a celebration like Saturnalia all on the same day to celebrate the days getting longer and the resurrection or rebirth of the solar diety. It can't be depressing or dissapointing to the ancients that the days are getting longer. I think that some Catholics have a celebration on St. John's Day, which is the longest day of the year on about June 22nd.

Yes, I get told that I should be on Jeopardy.

Okie, I think I understand what you just said. Unless cabin fever's symptoms include getting dissapointed for no reason?

Odin is a summon for Final fantasy. He rides an eight legged horse. Just saying.
It's nearing Thanksgiving here... let's broaden this thread to "What traditions do you have at your place?". Anyways... we don't usually have a tradition, really. Just do whatever. No turkey this year. Well, considering how the first Thanksgiving did not feature turkey...

The traditional Danish christmas is a long and tiring process. Of course, as a child it's fantastic, no doubt. Any christmas is any children's dream, of course depending on what sort of environment the given person was brought up in. But it's that time of the year.

Here, tradition has it that a special Christmas luncheon is arranged at your work. It's all about getting drunk and silly, etc. Same goes for New Year's Eve. Lots of alcohol, fireworks, and the lot. Nothing "special" going on... It's sort of up to the individual.

Christmas, on the other hand, is another thing. Celebrating the 24th, Christmas Eve, usually serving duck, goose (though that one's rather rare) or rinded pork roast. It's not uncommon to eat those suppers all-year round though. So it's really nothing huge. People then join for a dance around the Christmas tree, usually singing psalms or silly Christmas tunes from the radio. The gifts are placed underneath the tree.

The 24th itself is not a holiday - however, the 25th and 26th are. But there are no traditions; usually, families have luncheons at each other's homes, though not in the same drunken manner as at work or educational units... Well, that depends on what sort of family you're from.

"Yule" is exactly how it's pronounced, but it's simply spelled "jul" here - I think same goes for the rest of Scandinavia, minus Finland. I have no idea of what's going on up there.

Dark_wizzie wrote:Odin is a summon for Final fantasy. He rides an eight legged horse. Just saying.

I had heard that in a computer game kind-of like "Age of Mythology" that Odin has no healing powers. Odin is like a god of war and would rather fight to the death.

Wodin or Odin is the chief of the gods like Zeus or Jupiter. Norse Mythology is the coolest or most depressing Mythology depending on how you look at it. I had heard that Heaven, Hell, Earth, and hiding places were in a tree with a name like Yggsdrasil. The Norse gods were mortals and like sorcerors. I had heard that somebody in Norse Mythology was given eternal life and a life sentence in prison. Val Halla, the Viking Heaven, was supposed to have 432,000 souls, 432,000 doors, or something like that. Did they believe in 3 dozen dozen thousand gods and goddesses? It makes you wonder.

I wonder what it's like to have Tourette's Syndrome and believe in gods in ancient times. "Zeus is the way, the light, and the truth!" Or "May Odin strike you down with a bolt of lightning!"

Dark_wizzie wrote:It's nearing Thanksgiving here... let's broaden this thread to "What traditions do you have at your place?". Anyways... we don't usually have a tradition, really. Just do whatever. No turkey this year. Well, considering how the first Thanksgiving did not feature turkey...

Supposedly turkey has L-triptophan in it, which makes people tired and that's why guys are tired after Thanksgiving dinner.

You typed that you don't usually have a tradition. I don't know if your heritage is Buddhist. I was watching a show like "World's Most Outrageous Game Show Moments." It was right after Christmas and a host asked a contestant, "Did you have a Merry Christmas?" Then the contestant had a big smile and said, "I'm Jewish."

Did I mention that December 25th was Solstice and the competing Roman holiday of Saturnalia? It was combined with Christmas. Christmas was the Christ mass, The mass of Christ, not the birthday of Christ.

I think I forgot a holiday. If you're Greek, December 16th or 17th is Ketzenalia (I don't know if I'm spelling it right), the celebration of all things Greek. I wonder if this means that we celebrate Apolo Anton Ono, George Steffanoupolis, Jennifer Aniston, John Aniston, John Stamos, and Snuffleuppagus from Sesame Street. Does Snuffleuppagus sound like a Greek name?

What is this Veto in Scandinavian countries that's one night a year that I've heard about in Sociology class? I've heard that drunk guys go around at night shouting insults that they wouldn't get away with the rest of the year. My Sociology professor from that time is half Danish and went to Denmark.

We have luncheons also for 80th and 90th birthday parties where family and relatives get together in a reserved room at a restaurant.

I've heard that the Jewish get 2 Bar Mitsvahs. One is at age 13. The other is 63 years later because a lifetime was considered 63 years. I would think that they would have a luncheon or dance party.

15-year-old Mexican girls in The USA and Mexico have a Quincenyera. I don't know if I'm spelling it right. It's like a Bat Mitsvah, but they are 15 and I don't think that they are more likely to be Jewish.

I had forgotten to mention that in Japan, where they are Buddhist or Shinto, they ring a giant bell at midnight on New Year's Day.

In New York, they drop a ball down a poll at midnight on New Year's Day with singers and dancers. I imagine that it would become very boring to watch after very many years. On December 31, 1996, I watched a different channel where they blew up with explosives a Las Vegas hotel that they didn't need anymore that they needed to clear out.

Have a Happy New Year's this December or January! ...Unless you are a Roman or Iranian. Romans and Iranians have their New Year's Day in our March. Chinese New Year's is in January.

As it's Summer in Australia it all revolves around drinking as much as is humanly possible for most people. here, most Australian's are always looking for an excuse to get drunk, we have massive alcoholism problems.

We do nothing until the 25th when we exchange presents in the morning and than have a big lunch (turkey and Pork). There is a traditional thats been going for a few years now called 'An Aussie Christmas' that involves eating seafood and salads for Xmas lunch, more appropriate to our climate and beliefs.

For those that believe it's a trip to church at either midnight on the 24th or evening of the 25th. A huge population of Australia are either Athiest's, Agnostic or have a religion but don't really follow it. We have all religions here but religion is really disappearing fast. We have had a large number of Priests arrested and charged with molestation and the like over the last 2 decades and this has severely hurt Religions chances here.

The 26th (Boxing Day) is a public Holiday and just another excuse for people to drink all day again. The cricket is always on and a lot of the country spend the day getting drunk, having a BBQ and watching the cricket. From the 27th onwards all the shops reopen and we have massive sales selling off all the additional Xmas stock they couldn't at big discounts. You can get some huge bargains. Most people try to take this week off work until the New year and spend it either going to the beach, drinking, watching cricket, drinking, playing sport and for a change, drinking.

This continues until the 2nd January when everyone has to go back to work. All the kids have a about 5 weeks off from school as our school year runs from February - December unlike America that starts in July or something.

Drinking is the main traditionalism that is followed here...

stathmk wrote:What is this Veto in Scandinavian countries that's one night a year that I've heard about in Sociology class? I've heard that drunk guys go around at night shouting insults that they wouldn't get away with the rest of the year. My Sociology professor from that time is half Danish and went to Denmark.

I have never heard of it. Drunk guys shouting insults is probably just ordinary weekends, or weekdays for those who can't handle the bottle.

Dean wrote:A huge population of Australia are either Athiest's, Agnostic or have a religion but don't really follow it.

I remember reading somewhere that a couple of Australians had filled in Jedi as their religion.

Religion definitely isn't taken seriously here - I'm sure it's only between ten and fifteen percent of the population that actually has a belief and stand by it; extremists from either side vary in small percentages - we've had various issues with Islam, as any other country, but it's never been over the top. So in connection with Christmas, and New Year's too for that matter, religion is below ten percent of the reasons why it's celebrated. I'm certain that it's all for the sake of family, tranquility and merely having a good time - not celebrating the birth of a probable saviour that may or may not have had certain powers and thoughts.

ronwolf1705 wrote:

Dean wrote:A huge population of Australia are either Athiest's, Agnostic or have a religion but don't really follow it.

I remember reading somewhere that a couple of Australians had filled in Jedi as their religion.

HAHAHA, yeah. We had a National census a couple of years ago and there was this thing going around trying to get people to put in 'Jedi' as their chosen religion. There was a certain number that if they get enough people profess it to be their religion then it gets recognised in some capacity. The Government got really worried this might get in so they said they would fine anyone who put it down as their religion on the census (They didn't) but still got a couple of thousand people add it in as their religion. Being a massive Star Wars fan I would of done it if they hadn't said they were going to fine people.

Just an example of how big a percentage of the population looks at religion here. If you asked 100 people what Christmas is about, like 98 of them would say family and spending time together (or drinking of course). If you asked 100 children under 12 you would get only 1 answer 'presents!'.

All celebrations are that way in Australia and almost no one celebrates them for their originally intended reasons.

Australia Day - Day off work, excuse to drink excessively and watch Cricket all day.
Valentines Day - Because of the excessive commercialism and because you'll be looked on badly if you don't give something to your partner.
Easter - Chocolate Eggs, School Holidays for the kids and 4 days off work.
Anzac Day - Day off work, drinking all day and the 2nd biggest AFL football game of the year that everyone watches.
AFL Grand Final Day - Drinking, drinking, drinking, football and more drinking. And then some drinking happens as well.
New Years Day - Get as ridiculously drunk as you possibly can and make the biggest dickhead of yourself that you possibly can, irregardless of other people, and then write your behaviour off as 'It was New Years mate, get over it.' You, of course, are then looked on badly for not accepting someones moronic drunken behaviour then...

We have a public Holiday here for a horse race (Melbourne Cup Day) everyone gets the day off, which of course just turns into another excuse to start drinking at 8.00am.

I read where behind Germany (or Austria - Can't remember which one), Australians consume the most beer per capita in the World. There's a guy who I've lived across the road from for 3 years and I've never seen him without either a beer a cigarette or both in his hands, and I see this guy like almost every single day. He has after work drinks 5 nights a week in garage. This behaviour is, somewhat, accepted and goes on a fair bit across the country. We have a huge number of deaths each year here contributed to alcoholism, smoking, drug use and obesity.

Wow, there's a somber essay for you all to read!

Well, Thanksgiving passed here, and yesterday was "Black Friday" even though it was a Saturday, where people start shopping to death from 4am. Tomorrow on Monday is Cyber Monday, where people buy electronics.

I live in a small town in Indiana with 15,000 people. The Christmas parade goes past my house about every first weekend of December.

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis has thousands of strands of Christmas lights and garland put up around it every December and they say it’s The World’s Largest Christmas Tree. It might be the world’s largest artificial tree, but not the largest real tree.

Dark_wizzie wrote:Well, Thanksgiving passed here, and yesterday was "Black Friday" even though it was a Saturday, where people start shopping to death from 4am. Tomorrow on Monday is Cyber Monday, where people buy electronics.

He's right.

There are at least 3 Thanksgivings. Canadian Thanksgiving is in October. American Thanksgiving began in 1620 or 1621 and is in November. European Thanksgiving was religious because of somebody's Thursday sermons and began about 100 years before that. Thanksgiving wasn't a federal holiday in America until 1941.

Only one note from the first American Thanksgiving survives. It is doubtful that the Native Americans were invited or there that same day. The letter makes no mention of poinsettias, pumpkins, or turkey. They went hunting fowl with guns according to the letter, but it's speculation that the fowl is turkey. I've heard that the pilgrims came to America to escape The Church of England, for a warmer climate (It actually was colder than England), and something about how they were allowed to consume more alcohol here. Dean may be on to something.

ronwolf1705 wrote:

Dean wrote:A huge population of Australia are either Athiest's, Agnostic or have a religion but don't really follow it.

I remember reading somewhere that a couple of Australians had filled in Jedi as their religion.

True, however I've heard that it's partly a hoax. I think that themuseumofhoaxes.com was were I had read that The Jedi religion or faith had inflated their numbers. I saw a Ripley's Believe It Or Not comic that Jedi is the 4th most common faith in Britain, so I can believe that they inflated their numbers.

Atheists, Agnostics, Deists, and Masons might like Secular Humanism or Unitarian Universalism.

On a message board, somebody posted, "There are no Atheists in foxholes." Then somebody else posted, "There are no Atheists in foxholes. They are all Muslims."

Speaking of this sort of thing, do not support the Intelligent Design in Schools movement because the ones supporting it might have hidden agendas or not understand Science. They may be from a controversial Christian group, Muslims, Scientologists, The Raelians, or from the cult of Sun Myung Moon. The Raelians are creepy. The Sun Myung Moon Unification Church in Korea and America believes in arranged marriages, their own version of Intelligent Design, and I understand that they don't allow mass media in the cult. The Flying Spaghetti Monster of The Pastafarians of http://www.venganza.org/ (Ramen, brother!), The Invisible Pink Unicorn, The Jedi Faith, and Cthuluthu are parodies of The hidden Intelligent Designer in America. Cthuluthu (Kaloothoo in German) is mentioned in Bulfinch's Mythology once and by H.P. Lovecraft once.

On somebody's web site, he/she said that all men worship women whether they admit it or not. There aren't very many things that are more interesting to worship than women! In the Bible, David or Solomon used propaganda to make it look like he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Moses traveled with 16,000 virgins. In a Hindu Book, Krishna (Son of Devaki) had 16,000 girlfriends (Holy cow!) and kissed them all goodbye before he went on a journey. Keep your female family members and female relatives away from these guys!

Dean wrote:...A huge population of Australia are either Athiest's, Agnostic or have a religion but don't really follow it. ...

I had almost forgotten the video of Australian Atheist comedian John Safran VS Mormons: http://www.break.com/index/door_to_door_atheists_bother_mormons.html . If half of Australian John Safran’s Wikipedia page is true, then he’s quite a character at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Safran .

Why USA people eat turkey when the first Thanksgiving didn't include turkey is beyond me.

Let's start another December tradition! Playing multiplayer Rise of The Triad or another one of my multiplayer games with me over Christmas Break: http://rott.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=308

Please contact me if you want to play this weekend.

Or maybe we might try this in the summer if there's not a good turnout.

People should have developed a source port for Wolf 3D and other Wolf 3D engine games WITH multiplayer.
I could develop it, but I am NOT a programmer
Too bad I don't have ROTT experience, if I had I'd play with you

Tenamk wrote:People should have developed a source port for Wolf 3D and other Wolf 3D engine games WITH multiplayer.
I could develop it, but I am NOT a programmer
Too bad I don't have ROTT experience, if I had I'd play with you

There's a way to play Skulltag (a Source port for Doom 2) WolfenDoom. I want to get my Christmas shopping done first and then I'll see if I get enough info about how to do it.

There's been a few people try multiplayer versions of Wolf 3d over the years. Various people have tried working on it with some level of success.

I'd imagine someone will perfect it sooner or later.

I’m in Indiana. The World’s Largest Children’s Museum is in Indianapolis and is 5 or 6 stories tall. The oversized water clock has been there at least 25 years and I know because I was there 25 years ago. I saw on the news on December 31 that the kids in the museum watched the waterclock change to noon or 1 pm instead of watching the ball in New York drop at midnight. The water in the minutes section drops from 60 to 0 every hour. Every time that it’s 1 pm, the water gets emptied down to 1 pm in the hours section.

I don’t have the video of December 31. Here’s the waterclock changing to 11:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLbcvw4Answ

Here’s the waterclock changing to 1:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC-kO1C4F_U

December 16 in Greece is Ketzanalia.  I have no idea if I’m spelling this right.  It’s the Day of All Things Greek.
 
We turned on a channel that’s Christmas music & Christmas trivia today.  One country celebrates St. Nicholas Day on December 7.  In Germany, Santa Claus enters through the front door instead of the chimney.  Italians have a December 17 holiday, & they call it something else.  The Norse celebrate Yule on December 21.  Alabama was the first to make Christmas a legal holiday, but I don’t remember if it was in 1832 or 1836.  Rollo was the red-nosed reindeer before he was changed to Rudolph.  That reminded me that I had heard the American Puritans didn’t celebrate Christmas because they thought it was too Pagan or decadent.  Christmas was originally Solstice, Saturnalia, & the birthday of the sun god Mithras.  Jesus may have been born in September.
 
In a comments section for an article about Santa Claus, a European chimes in.  He typed that of all places, he grew up being told that Santa Claus, St. Myrna, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, or Papa Noel was from Spain, not the North Pole.  I thought that Saint Myrna or Saint Nicholas is the patron Saint of Greece, Turkey, Sailors, & Children.  I could have typed that on the message board, but I had forgotten to.  I had heard that over 900 years ago that Saint Myrna had adopted daughters, threw gold coins into the window so that they wouldn’t sell their bodies, & put toys in their stockings.  It makes sense because boys don’t wear stockings.  I had heard a story that Sinter Klass in Northern Europe delivered toys by reindeer sleigh to all of the children in the village.  I noticed no mention in the story of magic, flying, or delivering all of the toys to all the children in the world, so maybe he was a historical person in a village!?  German Santa Claus is crazy & travels with crazy Krampus.  Krampus punishes naughty kids.  I would describe Krampus as being a white devil because he looks like a white devil from the rock band Kiss.  The god Wotan, Wodin, or Odin flew across the sky in a sleigh or chariot pulled by an 8-legged horse.  These became 8 reindeer!?  In a European language, the reindeer include Donder & Blitzen instead of Donner & Blitzen.  Donder & Blitzen are thunder & lightning.  Jay Leno said that he was once flipping through the channels & a religious channel was on.  On the show, Santa Claus got down on his knees & prayed that Jesus would be born.  Leno said, “Isn’t there a separation of Church & Santa?”  That historical error that Leno mentioned would be a mistake in the chronology because St. Myrna was about 1,050 years after Jesus.  Europeans depict Santa Claus almost the way that Americans depict the thin Father Time.  Until about 1910 or 1920, Santa was depicted different ways.  He was sometimes depicted as a man with a black beard.  I thought that he appeared in red to match the Coca-Cola color scheme, to match a poem, & that’s the way that Macy’s depicted him.  I thought that Santa Claus, St. Myrna, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, or Papa Noel was originally depicted in church stained glass as being a brown man like some of the Turkish or Arabs instead of a white man.
 
Jerry Seinfeld is Jewish.  On one episode of Seinfeld, instead of Channukah, they celebrate Festivus with a pole, whatever that means.