What's wrong with "Merry Christmas"?

[Goddlefrood]

In:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/34644

Christian Stubø quoted from my earlier post:

> (iv) Eight reindeers - Probably due to Odin's horse having
> had 8 legs.

and replied:

No. The eight reindeer are due to the 1823 poem "An Account 
of a Visit from Saint Nicolas", otherwise known as "The Night 
before Christmas." Reindeer have little or nothing to do with 
giftbringing in Scandinavian Christmas tradition.

Goddlefrood:

I rarely make statements I couldn't back up, not that I've 
looked into this since well before the net was as it is now. 
This page:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=540182

would show any interested that the origin of the eight reindeers 
is traced back to Odin's horse. In any event, it pre-dates a 19th
century poem, so, no, I'm afraid to say that's a wrong source.

Later in the same post (quoting me initially)

> (v) FC's clothing - due to a coca cola advertising campaign
> of the 1930s, iirc.

Christian Stubø replied:

A Norwegian newspaper recently noted that New York Times had
described the uniformity of how Santa Claus was imagined - portly
man, with white beard, red trousers and coat with fur trimming, and
black boots - in an article predating the Coca Cola campaign.

Goddlefrood:

It may have had its sources skewed. Father Christmas was depicted 
in many and diverse outfits (in England anyway) before the 1930s. 
The coca cola company used it for an advertising campaign, which 
has now fixed his clothing as that campaign depicted. Read more 
here:

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/santa.html

That's not to say that Santa Claus was not often depicted in 
red in the USA, he may well have been, but coca cola has a lot 
to answer for as far as Father Christmas is concerned.

In:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/34659

> CJ:
> In any case, claiming pagan origin simply begs the question, 
> where did pagan practices originate?

Goddlefrood:

That's an easy one. It is my opinion, but based on extensive 
reading and thought, that organised religion of all kinds that 
incorporate some kind of life after death originated because 
of man's fear of death. During the course of my life I've had 
to face the prospect of death, as I'm sure many others also have, 
and it's quite bleak to think there's nothing after death, which 
is the conclusion to which I came, dealt with and then moved on.

Goddlefrood, who will be unable to attend this year's agm of the 
Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society of which he's a member due 
to commitments in the south seas.