system
A chat on 4chan
human
/x/ deconstructs Christmas
What are the hidden meanings of:
>The Christmas Tree
>Santa Claus
>Raindeer
>The North Pole
>Delivering presents to good children
>Delivering coal to bad children
>Christmas dates
Anything else you can think of
gpt
Santa is Saturn.

Saturn, or Shani, the Hindu version of Saturn, is a karmic deity/spirit, dispensing justice to both the good and bad. Just as Santa gives gifts (good) or coal (bad) to people based on the list he keeps. 

In astrology, Saturn rules over Capricorn and Aquarius, both winter months. Esoterically, Saturn associated with cold, wintry places; he also represents hermits. Santa lives practically alone at the north pole, hermit-like. 

The roman holiday of Saturnalia was also held in December, where gift giving was the tradition. I'm not sure if they decorated an evergreen tree, but many cultures did have a tradition of decorating, dancing around or lugging around an evergreen tree during winter ('Golden Bough' by James Frazer, mentions this cultural tradition frequently)

The Christmas Tree is *ALWAYS* an evergreen, it has symbolic meaning in that during the time of winter, evergreens are the only trees to still retain their greenery. To ancient peoples, winter was seen as death, and evergreens came to symbolize life, possibly even rebirth (hence why evergreens were also used in cultural traditions celebrating Osiris, Adonis, Dionysus, Attis, almost certainly Jesus Christ became the latest Catholic version of the Osiris archetype)
human
the tradition of kissing under mistletoe definitely has a Dionysian vibe to it, too