NP - Satan and Santa

[Joseph Tracy]

It is always funny to me how worked up some people get over Santa,  
but I gotta admit it is some weird-ass shit.
On Dec 16, 2009, at 11:09 AM, David Morris wrote:

> 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