Thanks for that, Ivan. A fine piece of work, although the truth of the Santa-on-a-Cross is open to some debate. There's a nice piece on it HERE which is worth a look. The folklore of it remains as profound as ever.

As I mentioned above, Father Christmas is derived in part from Odin,

Oh yeah? This has echoes of The Fall's Fantastic Life (just look at that picture of Lard / Marc Riley! What a star...) in which Mark E. Smith sings:

The Siberian mushroom Santa
Was in fact Rasputin's brother
And he didst walk round Whitechapel
To further the religion of forgiven sin murder
Fantastic lie!

Derived from Odin?? A fantastic (and indeed Frazerian) lie indeed!!