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 since. In 1989 the story was adapted into a musical play for children, "Santa Claus is Missing!", by Sylvia Ashby, with songs by Scott Taylor. Another adaptation exists in the form of the animated film "Who Stole Santa?" in the Oz Kids series (1996). In 2009, cartoonist Alex Robinson adapted the story into comic form in a book released by Harper Collins. More generally, the idea of kidnapping Santa Claus has been exploited by other artists in other works, as in Jean Van Leeuwen's book "The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper" (1975), Tim Burton's film "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), and