Santa Claus much to Odin, the old blue-hooded, cloaked, white-bearded Giftbringer of the north, who rode the midwinter sky on his eight-footed steed Sleipnir, visiting his people with gifts. […] Odin, transformed into Father Christmas, then Santa Claus, prospered with St Nicholas and the Christchild, became a leading player on the Christmas stage." In Finland Santa Claus is called Joulupukki (direct translation 'Christmas Goat'). Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from Church history and folklore, notably St Nicholas (known in Dutch as Sinterklaas), merged with the English character Father Christmas to create the character known to Americans and the rest of the English-speaking
A Kidnapped Santa Claus A Kidnapped Santa Claus "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" is a Christmas-themed short story written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz; it has been called "one of Baum's most beautiful stories" and constitutes an influential contribution to the mythology of Christmas. "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" was first published in the December 1904 edition of "The Delineator", the women's magazine that would print Baum's "Animal Fairy Tales" in the following year. The magazine text was "admirably illustrated" with "pen drawings of marked originality" by Frederick Richardson, who would illustrate Baum's "Queen Zixi of Ix" in