/Swedish/ portrayal?? It may match contemporary Swedish Santa, but that’s mostly an Anglo-Saxon import. (There are indigenous traditions that have been mixed in, but it’s complicated.) Even today, Santa in Sweden typically does not have a vehicle (rather, he walks up to your home, and he walks away, footprints conveniently getting snowed over), which makes the whole reindeer connection tenuous to say the least. (Also, in Sweden reindeer are more associated with the Sami than with Santa.)

My friend Artie says you’re not supposed to have figured that out. I say there’s a reason why Helen looks like Shaenon with different hair color, but I’m not supposed to tell you that, since it’ll probably ruin my chances of meeting the real-life Mel.

I can see him standing there, with his new Von Boom …
And the dork doesn’t know we’re sneaking in his room!
Showdowns!  He’s cute but he’s weird,
Standing there in his lab coat and his little beard!
Showdowns!  They’re really quite fun,
I es-pe-cial-ly like when it’s an evil one!

Helen says “It’s his goatee, that I kinda like,”
(Billionsix says that technic’ly, it’s a Van Dyke.)
Showdowns!  It’s mad versus mad!
Causing wholesale destruction is so totally rad!
Showdowns, with big evil grins!
When there’s stuff blowing up, then the cartoonist wins!