The Four Stages of Life

1) You believe in Santa Claus

You don't believe in Santa Claus

3) You are Santa Claus

4) You look like Santa Claus

"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph."
- Shirley Temple

"Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered."
- Phyllis Diller

Santa Claus is a cousin of sorts to Europe's legendary St. Nicolas. whose feast day is Dec. 6. but while Nicholas is shown as a slender man in a long, hooded coat, Santa is fat, jolly elf. His name likely comes from the Dutch version of St. Nicholas which they call Sinterklaas (which when said in the Dutch language sounds a lot like the words Santa Claus to those who speak the English language).

Much of the Claus we know was popularized by writer Washingtom Irving, professor Clement C. Moore and caricaturist Thomas Nast.

Santa was modernized and popularized by commercial illustrator Haddon H. Sundblom in pictures done from 1931 to 1964 for Coca-Cola.