From  Fellow Mythical Creatures discussion, 

I hope the season is finding you somewhere scenic and warm with a cuppa or someplace with a beach and a cool drink. 

 Centuries ago when I was a college student, I took a course on World Religions as Mythology. The premise was to look at all world religions through the lens that we now look at Nordic, Egyptian, Greek, and Chinese myths. The last course section was how modern beliefs and stories will become mythos. Many believed the tales of Tolkien and CS Lewis would endure like the writings of Homer. With the course ending at Christmas Break, we were all charge with writing a term paper and we spent a class discussion in groups of  three per day for December. 

The most interesting discussions were: How Santa was stolen from the Russians; Our astronomy major wrote how the the Star of Christmas (and other supernova) lead to the creation of myths globally (it sparked a return to an earlier discussion of how celestial events influence myth) and a paper on the Nativity and how unlike it was myths where the "messenger" comes to kings and heroes, they came to the poorest outcasts. While some wrote their papers on the Classics like Night Before Christmas or Dickens, my trio chose modern. 

One wrote about the Grinch, being the embodiment of Change comparing the Grinch's journey of self-discovery to Beowulf with his own nature being the monster to be slain. Another compared Rudolph to the Odyssey. I wrote a paper on Charlie Brown, the long suffering and often disparaged person who never quits trying that unwittingly brings a revelation or message,( and his ever-hopeful, innocent best friend Linus, because it isn't just about the journey but who goes with one). Like Job, he lives in a land of those who don't believe as he does, has a crisis of faith, and then returns to his hope. 

So this all begs the question, what stories or characters fill your holiday heart? You can include more modern mythical characters like Santa and his reindeer or the characters of the Nutcracker Suite and Dr. Seuss.  

Our discussion this week : What is your favorite Holiday mythical person or mythical creature and why?