Santa is heading to the North Pole, Arctic in 13 minutes. I guess he's finished his work. The NORAD map won't let me view the Article Circle as the underside - from the bottom. There's an 'up' to the planet and that's it - I can see it from the side, though, and this is what is useful -to see the continents and land masses in their correct size and spacial distances. Now Santa's back home!
He delivered over 7.5 billion gifts in his trip this year. That's a lot of children per adults of the 2.2 or 2.4 billion people (depending on whose count you are counting on) considered to be Christian. How many of the 1.9 billion Muslims might have given gifts. And the Secular, nonreligious, agnostic or atheists at 1.2 billion - did they participate in the Santa tradition?
These numbers come from the Pew Forum in their December 2012 study The Global Religious Landscape. It is HERE. They updated the study as of 2015, and it indicates Christians remain the largest religious group in the world. So it is no surprise that Christmas is the big festival of the year that it is.
But what about the 2/3 of the people who aren't Christian? Those of us who come from the dominant religion ask: Can we parse the secular from the religious parts of Christmas for all to enjoy the festival part? Christmas will be here for a while. Its festival of lights and Santa fun are so easy to engage with and so attractive to us, like Santa Claus and his trip around the world. Not so easily done is the report that comes back.
So Christmas is here with lots to contemplate and to enjoy.Our traditional Merry Christmas greeting comes from Santa and Mrs. Claus when they visited the Museum's Fantasy of Trees.