Merry Christmas 2005

From the Telegraph: it turns out that a small country church has official records that Father Christmas died and was buried in its graveyard in 1564. Apparently, someone named "Father Christmas" was laid to rest in a churchyard in a village called Dedham, in Essex, on May 30th of that year.According to Ralph Harris, the chief archivist at a records office in Essex, there is a logical explanation:"Christmas was not an uncommon surname in these parts around that time," he said. "In the 16th century old people were often called Old Mother this or Old Father that and this chap obviously took that nickname to his grave."So we can all obviously breathe a sigh of relief: the real Father Christmas (aka St. Nicolas, St. Nick, Santa Claus, Santa, et al.) is still alive and kicking, and presumably made his worldwide trip last night in his sleigh.