Actually the modern fat jolly happy santa we see today was in fact invented by Coka Cola. It was addapted from the European "Sinterklaas" that was skinny and wore a pointy hat like the pope. Santas happy little elves were originally known as Krampus and are evil looking demons that would beat you and rip off your ears if you were on Sinterklaas' naughty list. You can find this stuff in any encyclopedia, and of course, on the internet. People still celebrate and have parades for Sinterklaas and Krampus in most European countries. The Krampus actully pull people out of the croud and beat the crap out of them. You can find a few hundred videos of it on Youtube. There are even a few american cities that started doing it, most notably Portland, OR; and San Francisco, CA.
