NP - Satan and Santa

[David Morris]

http://www.markdery.com/archives/news/#000105

In "Satan and Santa: Separated at Birth?," Dery, a cultural critic and
book author, takes a look at the Jolly Old Elf's little-known role as
poster boy for officially sanctioned eruptions of social chaos, as
well as his current status as a flashpoint in "the Christmas
Wars"---cultural battles between evangelicals, atheists,
conservatives, and anti-consumerists over the "true" meaning of
Christmas. Along the way, Dery considers New Age theories that Santa
is a repressed memory of an ancient Celtic cult revolving around
red-capped psychedelic mushrooms; Nazi attempts to re-imagine
Christmas---a holiday consecrated to a Jewish baby, for Christ's
sake---as a pre-Christian invention of tree-worshipping German tribes,
in some misty, Wagnerian past; and the suspicious similarities between
Satan and Santa, connections that have fueled a cottage industry of
conspiracy theories on the religious