The time around the Solstice is the time when the days are shortest, the world is dark, and getting through the winter is on everyone's mind. It's also the time when the days start to lengthen again, giving rise to thoughts of rebirth. So naturally, people stuck in the dark, with little else to do, tend to have a big winter party: Yule, Christmas, Saturnalia, etc.
They also tend to think about death a lot. Christmas time has a lot of creepy stories associated with it, and one of my favorites is the Wild Hunt. During this liminal season, between life and death, when everything is cold, processions of the dead were believed to ride through Northern Europe.
So when Santa rides across the sky, with his eight tiny reindeer, just remember: it could be a lot worse.
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