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We all know Santas story by now. He was originally a bishop back in the day, and after he died he became known as saint Nicholas, or saint Nick for short. And even way back then, before Christmas became a major holiday, the anniversary of his death was a day to celebrate by giving out gifts. But most of us dont know that saint Nick actually had a bad rap for a while, and that is actually how he got all of the other names we know him by today.

During the time of great change in the Christian Church known as the Protestant Reformation, which occurred in the 1500s, the famous Martin Luther declared that all good Christians should stop celebrating saints. For the devout followers of Luther, that meant also stopping the celebration of saint Nick, no matter how fun the gift giving had become.

But of course, not all Christians stopped celebrating saint Nick, not even all of the Protestants. Instead of stopping the celebration, they crafted a plan to enjoy the saint Nick holiday in secret. This is when saint Nick became known in England as Father Christmas. In Germany, people referred to Santa as Christmas Man, and the Dutch created the name Sinterklass.

About this time, a large majority of Dutch settlers moved to New Amsterdam in Americawhat would later become New Yorkand brought their celebration of Sinterklass with him. Americans caught on to the idea, and tried to pronounce his name right. But instead, what came out was Santa Claus.

However, Santa Claus did not hit the big time until the author of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving, got wind of Santa Claus and promoted him the American press. This happened in the early 1800s, when Washington Irving wrote a story called the A History of New York, in which he went into great detail about a man called Sinterklass. This saint Nick was fat and short, wore a funny costume, and would travel around on the Eve of saint Nicolas on a horse.

The idea of jolly gift-giving man caught on in the American press. Another writer, the poet Clement Clark Moore, wrote a poem called A Visit from St. Nicolas, which is better known as, The Night Before Christmas. It was Moore who made saint Nick a jolly old elf who flies around the night in a magical sleigh powered by eight flying reindeer. We all know the names of those reindeer, right? Well, Moore also included them in his poem.

Americans would get their best images of Santa Claus in the magazines of the late 1800s, when the cartoonist Thomas Nast put out his own visions of saint Nick in Harpers Weekly. For Nast, Santa was a bigger man with a big fat belly, who wore a red suit lined with fur and a big leather belt. Nast also started drawing images of Santas workshop in the North Pole, and Santa using a list to keep track of his kids who were naughty and nice.

Of course, these are all the images of Santa that we use today in the newspapers, in cartoons, and on TV. Or should we say, perhaps, images of Sinterklass?

Randy Stocklin is the co-owner of Mail from Santa Claus. Mail from Santa Claus offers memorable letters from Santa Claus that helps keep the Christmas spirit alive. For more information about Mail from Santa Claus and to purchase letters from Santa Claus please visit http://www.mailfromsantaclaus.com/.

Ahh.. The magical fun land of orlando, florida. It is the sixth largest in the state of florida and well known for their outrageously large number of theme parks making it one of the top tourist hot spots in USA! Among the top hot spots here are the well known Walt disney world resort, Universal orlando resort and Sea World. Such attractions attract more than 50 million tourists each year. It is not surprising then to know that orlando have a lot of hotel accommodations ranking them second highest in the whole usa.

A little bit of history on orlando, florida. It is reported that orlando got its name from a soldier named orlando Reeves believed to have died somewhere in the region during that infamous war against the Seminole Indian tribe in 1836. A tree carving which bears his name was later assumed as his grave marker and everyone referred the spot as orlando. The name stuck ever since to this very day.

orlando is not exactly the best spot to find solitude, peace and relaxation. It is suitable for family outings and most of the fun stuffs here are conducted outdoors. The activities here are physically taxing and would take its toll on the toughest athletes! hours of walking from one spot to another within each attraction are normal and it is advisable to wear sports sneakers here at all times. If you are an adrenalin junkie, this is the right place for you. Roller coasters and killer rides are aplenty here in orlando. Have fun!

Saidul A Shaari is the principal and founder of Sahabatul Ventures Holy CoW!, specializing in providing non-biased reviews on many wonderful places in the world today. An enterprising business individual who turn half ideas into real money making opportunities. Loves traveling all over the world and would very much like to share his thoughts and experiences with anyone on the globe!

Learning how to play golf for some body can become like an addiction. They get so rapped up in the game that they find themselves spending most of their spare time involved in this particular game. Yet although the actual rules of this particular game are very simple to understand when it comes to playing the game many people decide not to take it up because it requires a lot of skill. However by learning a little about the fundamentals of the game will soon have any person new to the game in a while playing almost like a pro.

In this article we are going to take a closer look at the basics of the game relating to the equipment that you will need you start learning how to play golf.

The game of golf is played on a course and these can either be private or public and will consist of either 9 or 18 holes. If the course consists of 18 holes it will then broke up into 2 sections which are refer to as the front 9 holes and the back 9 holes.

In order to play the game you will need to have the following equipment:

1. Golf Bag

2. Set of Golf Clubs - The shop or golf course where you purchase your first set of clubs from will be able to tell you which are the ones best suited to your size. Normally you should look to purchasing some woods, irons and a putter. Typically you should look at having 1, 2 and 3 wood clubs (however these go up to number 12) in your bag along with several of the irons (which are numbered 1 to 9) and also include a pitching and sand wedge in this group of clubs as well.

3. Golf Balls - Well you can not play a game of golf without these, again the person selling you your clubs will be able to decide which are the best kind of golf balls for you to use initially.

4. Golf shoes These can be an optional extra, however you may well find that most golf courses do not allow players to use their courses if they are not wearing the right attire. Therefore it is essential that you find out from your local golf course what dress code they have if any.

5. Golf cart and umbrella Although not essential are good pieces of equipment to have especially if when first starting out as you may find lugging the bag around the course (especially 18 holes) will be come extremely heavy after a while. also although the weather may be fine when you start playing a round of golf it can suddenly change half way through so having an umbrella with you at all times could save you a lot of heartache and preventing you from getting soaked.

When it comes to learning how to play golf there are various ways in which this can be done you can either pay a golf pro to teach you or you can do it yourself by reading books and watching videos and DVDs on the game.

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Wouldnt it be nice to lose weight quickly, with minimal effort or fuss? Of cause you would! I for one would love to just sit back do nothing and the weight will just fall off.

Whether its a low Carb, low GI diet, A choice of diet pills or natural weight loss pills, diet shakes, or exercise equipment, weve all seen the fantastic claims people including celebrities make about losing tons of weight AND how they can show you how to do the same thing.

I can tell you right now that 99% of these people are total frauds. You may have even fallen prey to one of these scam artists, selling you their latest weight loss program. Me too!

In the past Ive brought so many of these programs that I cant even recall how many. I dont know why, but I tend to find the good in people, and I was sold by these marketing schemes time and time again, even after being scammed by another. Finally, after so many disappointments, I got FED UP. I decided to get to the bottom of this fascination we have with weight Loss programs and find out if there really were any LEGITIMATE programs for weight Loss.

Legitimate as in not only dealing with LOSING weight but also what caused the weight Gain in the first place.

The American Heart Association has several tips to that helps guide you to identify a Fad Diet or Program if it is recommended.

Magic or miracle foods that burn fat. foods dont burn fat they create fat when we eat more than we need.

Bizarre quantities of only one food or type of food such as eating only cabbage or tomatoes. These foods are fine as part of an overall healthy diet, but eating large quantities of them could lead to unpleasant side effects.

Rigid menus. Many diets set out a very limited selection of foods to be eaten at a specific time and day, exactly as written. Often these limited diets dont address the widely varied taste preferences of our diverse population.

Specific food combinations. Some foods taste good together, like the classic soup and sandwich, but theres no scientific evidence that eating foods in certain sequences or combinations has any medical benefit.

Rapid weight loss of more than two pounds a week.

No warning given to people with diabetes or high blood pressure to seek advice from the physician or healthcare provider. Some fad diets could raise blood pressure or blood glucose even if you loss weight.

No increase physical activity. Simple physical activities, like walking or riding a bike, are one of the most important ways to lose weight and maintain weight loss. Yet many fad diets dont emphasis these easy changes.

now dont be discouraged, which weight loss program is the right one for you, which one isnt just a fad diet. In my research I have found a few programs that not only deal with losing weight but also the cause of why you got fat in the first place (which by the way, is ultimately the main reason why we end up putting the weight back on) and also adding in successful, simple strategies to increase exercising.

Whatever you do, I wish you a healthy year for you and yours

Author Bio: Gillian Tarawhiti BSc, Dip BM, Dip Ed, is Founder and CEO of Community Training Centre & Gain Back Your Life Centre, A registered EFT Practitioner, Member of AAMET and Online Training and Support to the new and not so new netpreneurs. Gillian is also the author of eBay Billion Dollar Goldmine, and the creator of NO DIET weight LOSS PROGRAM(TM) and the Multiple Ripple Effect System 2004. Permission is granted to reprint this article in print or on your web site so long as the paragraph above is included and contact information is provided to http://www.gainbackyourlife-eft.com