(aka Xmas to the athiests)

I think it is to many Christians too, in echo of the old Chi-Rho which is used in churches to this day, often highly ornate & decorated with threads o' gold. Xtianity is common shorthand too, but I'm happy with Christianity, and Christmas too for that matter, though I doubt either have much to do with the teachings & example of Jesus Christ as I've come to purposefully misunderstand them o'er the years - but I guess that's down to what you Mudcatters would call The Folk Process. I love the Gospel of Thomas - and my favourite Christmas reading is to be found in the Gospel of Pseudo Matthew (from whence we get the Cherry Tree Carol).

Father Christmas is the Siberian Amanita muscaria munching Shamanic Santa; red in tooth & claw as Leeneia points out. Was he ever nailed to a cross though? Or is that just a piece of xenophobic folklore that has wormed its way into our affections by way of another level of mawkish metaphor? Meanings do change though, it's the nature of the beast, but whilst as a child I believed fervently in Santa Clause I was in no way aggrieved when I learned he didn't, in fact, exist. As long as the presents kept coming I simply didn't care, but we always hung out our stockings and left him a glass of port, a slice of Christmas cake and a carrot for his reindeer in the same way I might till toddle along to Midnight Mass (something we never did as a kid though, likewise get up at dawn to watch the Solstice Sunrise). I learned long ago that Mythic Concepts could be fun - like God, Top Cat, UFOs and Folk Music - but didn't actually have any corporeal currency in The Real World.   

PS : Is Militant Mental Masturbation Religion what exactly?