Patrick Courrielche
In 2015, Courrielche wrote a long form story "St. Nicholas: The Birth Of A Social Weapon" on the origin of Santa Claus and introduced the concept of a "social weapon" - a packaged idea, message, or product that is used by an individual or group to advance their cause. Courrielche argued that New York City elites crafted Santa Claus from St. Nicholas, a widely known patron saint, to stabilize a city plagued by annual misbehavior every December. Santa Claus was then used as a "social weapon" by merchants, craftsman, city rulers, parents, newspapers, and others to benefit their endeavors. The essay was added to the St. Nicholas Center's resource on the Origin of Santa Claus.
List of recurring South Park characters
Santa Claus (voiced by Trey Parker) lives at the North Pole in his Fortress of Solitude, aided two months out of the year by the Underpants Gnomes. Santa is often shown with "South Park's" other Christmas-related characters, Mr. Hankey and Jesus. His relationship with the latter has been rocky. In the animated short, "The Spirit of Christmas", Jesus and Santa had a fight to determine what the true meaning of Christmas was—giving or Jesus' birth. With some advice from Brian Boitano, the boys told Jesus that Santa keeps the spirit of Christmas alive, and then told Santa that if it wasn't for Jesus there would be no Christmas at all. The two reconciled, though they would later fight again in "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics", when Santa felt unhappy that there are more Jesus-related Christmas songs than ones about him. Nevertheless, they made up again, and Jesus later lost his life to save Santa from Iraqis in "Red Sleigh Down". To commemorate his good friend, Santa declares that in every Christmas, everyone should remember Jesus.