Ho, ho, ho! And the merry, merry! I’m in quite the christmas spirit right now. Don’t know why, but there’s just something about frosty landscapes, pine trees, the commercial chaos and lotsa green and red colours. Thats my reason for releasing my world famous artwork from a couple of years back; errrr…’Sinister Santa’.

I’ve only bought like two presents so far, and the bells are tolling. I better start doing something, but without a flood of cash in my wallet, I can only witness the carnage, not participate. So how about a historical glimpse on this annual mayhem, leaving out the well-known evangelical aspects? Most interesting, you say - and so do I.

The word Christmas is just a contraction of ‘Christ’s Mass’, the sermon of the Messiah, a phrase first recorded in 1038. The norwegian term jul, or the british yule relates to the pagan winter solstice festival, referred to as geol. The importance of Christmas Day increased after Charlemagne was crowned on the same day i year 800.

In pre-christian time, the winter festival was the most popular annual festivity in many cultures. Less agricultural work had to be done during the season, and people looked forward to longer days and shorter nights in the following time. In part, the early church contributed to the festival, to lure in pagan romans. As long as they didn’t lose their traditional festival, they might as well convert. But not only Christ had his birthday celebrated at December 25. Among the merry men was Ishtar, Sol Invictus and Mithras.

The christian ceremonies drew a lot from different ancient festivals, thus trying to create the most attractive. Here are three major, pagan festivals.

Saturnalia was the best-known festival in Rome, and was popular throughout Italy. A time of relaxation, feasting, merry-making and a cessation of formal rules. It included the trading of presents, notably small dolls for children and candles for adults. Business was postponed, and even slaves could feast. Drinking, gambling, singing and the occasional public nudity was on display. Saturnalia honored the god Saturn and began on December 17.

Natalis Solis Invicti was a shorter celebration, held by the romans on December 25. Its name means ‘the birthday of the unconquered sun’, and allowed for the worship of several solar deities. The popularity of this event reached its height under Emperor Aurelian, who promoted it as a holiday throughout the empire. The romans preferred to name the winter soltice bruma, the day the sun showed itself unconquerable, and once again returned. Several early Christian writers connected the rebirth of the sun to the birth of Jesus.

Yule was a celebration that originated in pagan Scandinavia, held in late December to early January. Yule logs were lit in the honour of Thor, the god of thunder, and it was believed that each spark from the fire represented a newborn pig or calf in the following year. Feasting would continue as long as the log burned, which could take up to twelve days. In the pagan Germania, the equivalent celebration was mid-winter night, which was followed by 12 wild nights of eating, drinking and partying. As the north of Europe was the last areas to receive the bible, the pagan traditions kept a major influence on christmas - and is the reason why we still call it ‘yule’.

But who is this Santa Claus character then? Just a Coca Cola brandmark?

Saint Nicholas of Myra is the main inspiration for the Christian figure of Santa. He was some turkish guy, even a bishop, of Myra, a province of Byzantine Anatolia. He lived as early as the fourth century, and was famous for his generous gifts to the poor. He was fervently religious and is today pictured as a bearded man in cardinal robes. His relics were transported to Bari, Italy, and his basilica became a pilgrimage.

Numerous parallels has been drawn to the norse god Odin. This may have been an example of pagan traditions surviving the Christianization. Odin was reported having lead a great hunting party across the sky at Yule. Snorri’s tales of Odin and his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir, may have given rise to the comparisons of Santa’s reindeer. His very appearance resembles Santa, as being depicted as an old, mysterious man with a white beard. Children would place their boot, filled with vegetables or sugar, near the chimney, for Sleipnir to eat. Odin would then reward the children by replacing the food with sweets and candy. This tradition lives on to this day, with the hanging of stockings at the fireplace.

The Father Christmas icon dates back to the 17th century in Britain, portrayed as a stocky, bearded man in long green robes. The name Santa Claus is derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas, based on St. Nicholas. In other countries the figure of St. Nicholas merged with local folklore. In nordic countries, the bringer of gifts was the Yule Goat - a pagan tradition that survived up to the turn of the 19th century. In the 1840s, an elf in nordic folklore called ‘tomten’ or ‘nissen’ started to deliver presents in Denmark. ‘Nissen’ was a short, bearded man, dressed in gray or traditional clothes and a red hat. He lived in the barn, and people used to give him porridge to eat at christmas eve. The myth, inspired by Santa Clause, spread to Norway, Sweden and Finland - pretty much replacing the Yule Goat.

In the British colonies of North America, the later United States, the British and the Dutch version of Santa merged further. In Washinton Irving’s book ‘History of New York’ (1809), he lost his bishop’s apparel, and started to resemble a thick-bellied Dutch sailor in a green winter coat. Irving, famous for his short-story ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’, invented the Santa character as a joke. The modern idea of Santa grew through the poem ‘A visit from St. Nicholas’, published in 1823 - which named his eight reindeers. The artist Thomas Nast was the first to portray the mythical figure in a modern way in Harper’s Weekly, 1863.

The idea of Santa coming from the North Pole on a sled, was born at the end of the 1800s, when photographs of norwegian Sami people trying to teach Alaskan Inuits to herd reindeer was used in a commercial campaign. Soon, the merry man became immortal, married and got elves to work at his workshop on the North Pole.

The merry philanthropist also became a big sponsor of soft drinks, and was given his present design by the Coca Cola Company (Haddon Sundblom) in the 1930s , although he’d been used in commercials at an even earlier stage. Today, he resides in Rovaniemi, Finland.