Is there really a Santa Claus?

It's the time of year for more unusual questions to start appearing at Ask Dave Taylor and so it's not a huge surprise that the most interesting question of the weekend was Is Santa Claus Real? Rather than dismiss it, I decided to dig into the myth, legend and story of Santa Claus (more formally known as "Saint Nicholas of Myra", actually, but I'll let you read through what I found out and decide for yourself whether there's a Santa Claus:

    Is Santa Claus Real?

And, yes, I end my piece with an observation about why we need someone like Santa Claus in modern day society, whether you believe he's real or not. As for us? Well, we hedge our bets with cookies and milk on the mantel every 24th of December.