Guinn, Jeff. The autobiography of Santa Claus

Guinn, Jeff. The autobiography of Santa Claus. Penguin, 2003 [1-58542-265-7]
In this 287 page book Santa tells his life story from his initial gift giving in 280 A.D. Then he moves through history making friends and gathering people who travel with him (and gain his immortality.) (Some of these people include King Arthur, Leonardo DaVinci, Ben Franklin, and Teddy Roosevelt.) Because he is a Bishop there is talk of Christianity. He travels through the world and time expanding his idea of gift-giving to the point where he finally is only giving gifts on Christmas Eve and moves his whole operation up to the North Pole. Santa has a way of running into all the most famous and important people in the history of the world. So not only does that reader get a wonderful background on the history and folklore of Santa Claus but also a trip through world history meeting the world shakers. I found the book in total, interesting but at times was tedious, waiting to see which famous person he would meet next. There is a helpful bibliography at the end of the book.