You budding artist types will appreciate this. Every year around this time I like to recongnize a historical figure that I like learning about. Thomas Nast was a 19th century political cartoonist that helped conceptualize our modern image of Santa Claus. He also was the one who came up with the idea to represent our political parties with the elephant and donkey, and I heard that he also came up with the image of Uncle Sam, although I'm not too sure about that claim. Anyway, it's close to the holidays, so why not learn about Thomas Nast's Santa Claus. Here's something to get you started:
<A HREF="http://www.nastsantas.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.nastsantas.com/</A>