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Claus celebre: Santas around the world He’s the ultimate mashup — part religious history, part superstition, part marketing campaign — and he sure gets around. And yet, after all these years, something magical happens whenever someone puts on Santa’s bright red suit.
A diver dressed as Santa Claus feeds sardines at the Coex Aquarium in Seoul. Christmas is one of the biggest holidays in South Korea; more than half of South Koreans are Christians.
Lee Jin-man/Associated Press
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A professional diver in a Santa suit decorates a Christmas tree inside an aquarium at Manila Ocean Park. The Philippines, primarily Roman Catholic, have one of the world’s longest Christmas seasons, with shopping malls playing carols in September. Christmas lanterns and fireworks displays go up in early December.
Romeo Ranoco/Reuters
A bungee jumper in Santa regalia jumps from a platform above Kuta beach in Denpasar on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
Sonny Tumbelaka/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images
A bungee jumper dressed as Santa Claus clings to his sack as he leaps from a platform above Kuta beach in Denpasar on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Sonny Tumbelaka/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images
Klaus Chroszielewski, dressed as Santa Claus, competes in the National Walk the Plank contest Dec. 3 in Key West, Fla. The Baltimore resident defended his 2010 title in the competition, which is part of Key West's annual Pirates in Paradise festival. Contestants were judged on their pleas, costuming, plank-walking style and splash.
Bert Budde/Florida Keys News via Associated Press
Men, most of them students and retirees, are dressed as Santa at the jobless center in the eastern German town of Rostock. Many people work as part-time Santas during the holidays to make extra money.
Frank Hormann/Associated Press
Four of the 250 people dressed as Santa to take part in a fundraising event ride the chairlift at Sunday River ski resort on Dec. 4 in Newry, Maine. To qualify for a free lift ticket, participants had to wear full costumes, complete with beard, and donate at least $10 to the Bethel Rotary Club's annual drive to provide gifts for the area's needy children.
Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
Some of the 250 Santas participating in a fundraising event take a run at Sunday River ski resort in Newry, Maine. Wearing the full Santa custume and donating $10 to the Bethel Rotary Club's gift drive for needy children entitled participants to a free lift ticket.
Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
Ramiro Hinojas directs traffic along a Manila road on Dec. 6. Known as the “dancing traffic cop,” Hinojas, 55, is one of thousands of traffic enforcers who struggle daily to manage Manila's notorious traffic. They face insults from impatient motorists and health dangers from exhaust.
Ted Aljibe/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images
Uriah Cole rides a Harley-Davidson past children at Toddler Town in East Alton, Ill., on Dec. 1.
Margie M. Barnes/The (Alton) Telegraph via Associated Press
Santa Claus and Kermit the Frog perform at the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony Dec. 1 on the Ellipse in Washington.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
President Obama sings a Christmas carol with Santa Claus during the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse in Washington Dec. 1.
Joshua Roberts/Reuters
Marchers in the Volunteers of America Sidewalk Santa Parade cross an intersection in midtown Manhattan on Nov. 25. The parade has been an annual event since 1902.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Competitors take part in the annual Santa Dash in Liverpool, England. The five-kilometer race draws thousands of entrants dressed as Santa Claus. Many runners wear blue suits in support of the Everton FC soccer team.
Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images
Gilbert Garcia, left, and his mother, Aplonita Montoya, visit the Mary Esther Gonzales Senior Center in downtown Santa Fe, N.M., on Dec. 5 after a winter storm struck the state. The storm closed hundreds of schools, shut down a major highway from Albuquerque to Gallup and led to the postponent of Santa Fe’s Christmas tree lighting.
Jane Phillips/Santa Fe New Mexican via Associated Press
Actor David Warren, who has been playing Santa for the past10 years, holds a less-than-thrilled 7-month-old Olivia Ruch at Santa's Grotto in Selfridges department store in London.
Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
A man dressed as Santa Claus waves to children from the cockpit of a helicopter over the parking lot of HarborWalk Village in Destin, Fla., on Nov. 25.
Nick Tomecek/Northwest Florida Daily News via Associated Press
A mannequin dressed as a fisherman in a Santa Claus costume sits on a rocky outcrop in the Irish Sea, 50 miles north of Belfast near the village of Waterfoot.
Cathal McNaughton/Reuters
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