=== Modern allusions ===
Modern western countries perpetuate a story of a giver of gifts who enters homes by stealth, leaves generous gifts, and departs as secretly as he came. In the [[British Isles]] this figure is called "Father Christmas," and in [[France]], ''Père Noël''. The [[Holland|Dutch]] call him ''Sinter Klaas'', which is the literal translation of "Saint Nicholas" in Dutch<ref>Anonymous, [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/noel/angl/stnico.htm Saint Nicholas], [[France|French]] Ministry of Culture. English version retrieved April 16, 2007.</ref><ref name=CT/>--and in the [[United States]], thanks largely to popularizers like the author [[Clement Moore]], he is called "[[Santa Claus]]," a corruption of the Dutch name.<ref>The elaborate myth of Santa Claus' [[North Pole|Arctic]] toy factory and unequaled transport and delivery system probably reflect Americans' confidence in their country's industrial might more than any of the qualities attributed to Nicholas himself.</ref> In [[Germany]] he is known as "Kris Kringle," which is a corruption of the German name ''Christkindl'', literally "Christ child."<ref name=CT/> Perhaps by no accident, "Kris Kringle" is always associated with the cone-shaped "[[Christmas tree]]," or ''Tannenbaum'', which is a German invention that itself traces to a pagan practice that began in that region.
== See also ==
*[[Christmas Paintings]]
== References ==