Is Santa Clause Aka Father Christmas The Worlds’ Greatest Traveller?

The countdown is on for Christmas and I thought this an appropriate time to discuss Santa and whether he really could be classed as the world’s greatest traveler.

Santa commenced his current career when he was Bishop Nicholas of Smyrna (Izmir) in what is now Turkey during the 4th century AD. The tradition started when in order to give joy to poor children he would throw gifts in through their windows. Since then business has grown substantially and the territory has expanded to cover the whole world.

Based for a while at the North Pole, Santa moved in 1925 to Korvatunturi in the Finnish Lapland, where there is better feed for his eight reindeer. He travels on a daily basis to Napapiiri, near Rovaniemi, where he has his main office, and spends the day listening to what children want for Christmas.

The internet has impacted on the way Santa receives the requests from children for gifts with a lot more request by email and less by regular mail now. This has assisted the elves with their processing of the requests, and the mass production of the most popular toys.

The current economic climate has had an affect on the demand for some of the more expensive gifts, however Santa believes that over a period of time this will change. “I have seen it all before, and these economic times tend to be cyclical,” he said.

Despite the advent of jet aircraft, Santa – the worlds’ greatest traveller, has not had any change in his mode of transport. It is still the same eight reindeer that haul him and his sleigh full of gifts around every country in the world every year on the night of the 24th December.

It is more in the nature of the gifts that Santa has noticed the big changes having gone from simple hand-made wooden toys early in his career to far more sophisticated electronic toys now. That, and the decline in the number of new houses that are being built with a chimney, his traditional means of access to the home. One change that he has enjoyed however has been the variety of different beers that are left out for him. They help to keep his nose nice and red, although he thinks that Rudolph may also have been sampling some of the treats left for him.

Let me know your thoughts on whether you agree that Santa is indeed the world’s greatest traveler?