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Santa Claus occupies a strange place in Christian belief. On the one hand, only children seem to really believe he exists; on the other, he gets a great deal more attention than many other purported supernatural beings, such as angels or Satan.
Does Santa Claus count as a god of the Christian religion? (From an anthropological point of view, many different kinds of supernatural beings can be classified as "gods.") Christians are likely to say no, in part because Christianity styles itself as a monotheistic religion. I say "styles itself," because there are several ways in which it looks quite polytheistic. For example, though there are plenty of Christians who believe only in the one capital-G God, there are also many who also believe in angels, saints, demons, and even ghosts—and this is ignoring the complicating example of the Trinity.
But although Santa would indeed count as a supernatural being if people believed in him, in fact not many people older than 7½ actually do. However, the nature of the Santa Claus myth bears some striking similarities to the gods of many religions.
The most obvious similarity is…
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