Sweet Christmas

When one is called on to explain why Rudolph didn't make it into The Night Before Christmas, one must choose between a) the real answer (Rudolph was invented in the 1930s by a guy who worked for Montgomery Ward, more than 100 years after that poem was written), or b) the more in-the-spirit explanation that Rudolph had a split hoof and decided to hang back at the North Pole to play Tekken 4 with Burl Ives, some drunken elves and a wendigo. And besides, this year Santa flossed up the sleigh with a GPS and some xenon fog lights, making Rudolph "redundant." So, a good rule of thumb to use when selecting one of these two possibilities is this: when addressing a quaffle of saucer-eyed innocents, one is really obliged to choose the answer that best preserves the magic of the season.

Right. Well, anyway, the Evolution of Santa is a useful history of the jolly old elf and his reindeer. Ho ho ho.