Whatever the historical associations, the spirit of Santa certainly lives on, as McGrath and others have more than adequately stated. As for God and his cronies, the only thing I know is that I was born without a belief in a god (or anything else for that matter) so it was only the brainwashing of society that fed me the myth of God and all the usual guilt trips that go with the deal, without the slightest shred of evidence (and please don't give me the usual "you must have faith, my son").

It has only been in adult life that I have been able to shake of the dreadful effects of that ongoing brainwashing and see things more clearly.

So there's certainly more evidence for the existence, then and now, of Santa than there is of God. (Note also that belief in Santa does not give rise to holy wars etc, only good spirits around Xmas time).

And to the original poster, I really believe that Mousethief's self-righteous attitude about "lying" is to the detriment of his children's childhood. Is there no place for make-believe? - except in the case of God, of course, where you can seemingly justify any old lies.

What on earth are we coming to. End of rant.

Terry