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Actually, Santa is modeled after the dutch "Saint Nicolas" guy. We celebrate his birthday on the 5th of december, someone just shifted him to fit in with the whole christmas birth of christ thing... That was probably a commercial thing.
To confuse things even more, this Saint Nicolas guy was introduced to replace the tradition of worshipping the nordic god Wodan (if I'm not mistaken).
And in another twist, the Saint came from a Turkish/Greek island (depending on whose side you're on), which was later conquered by the Spanish; as a result, these days, he's said to come from Spain.
(And I haven't even mentioned his assistants: formerly water spirits, they're now Moorish slaves. Yes, totally non-PC.)
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