The tiny girl with the light brown hair and dark, luminous eyes smiled up at NYPD Sgt. Rogelio Pagan when he entered her home as an early Santa substitute with Christmas presents. He held her on his ...

SANTA CRUZ >> Oberon Zell is about as good a Santa Claus as you are likely to find this holiday season. Wearing a fur-trimmed red suit and matching hat, Zell sat beside a Christmas tree Sunday in his ...

As a non-Christian with a deep affection for Christmastime, I’ve always felt a little left out around this time of year, but not in the way you might think. I’ve always felt a bit out of place with ...

Santa Claus is coming to town. That's great and all, but if you're an American you probably enlist the services of the same Santa everyone else does: fat, jolly, dressed in fur, gives rich kids great ...

Christmas trees are widely associated with the Christian holiday, but their origins are far from the Christ-worshipping standards they represent today. Evergreens, plants that stay green year-round, ...

When you gather around the Christmas tree or stuff goodies into a stocking, you're taking part in traditions that stretch back thousands of years — long before Christianity entered the mix. Pagan, or ...

I should offer some background. When I was a kid, my parents cut out a jokey headline from a local newspaper that read "Santa Knows We're Jewish" and put it on a cardboard Christmas tree ornament. My ...