Santa’s mother was the White Winter Queen. She left the world long ago, but a little of her magic is left in Santa, in addition to his own.
Santa was born at midnight on the winter solstice, with a full bright moon in a clear, crystal blue night sky and fresh snow on the ground. When the queen laid him in his cradle it lifted into the air just a little, gently rocking the baby to sleep. In fact, whenever Santa was placed in a cradle or cot, it would rise up and then land itself gently on the ground when he wanted out.
As Santa grew, he showed himself to be a child full of joy and laughter who wanted most in the world to make the people around him as happy as he was. He made toys and fidgets for all the other children of the Queen’s Wood, whether they were animal, elf, human, or otherwise. He made useful things, too, for the grown-ups of the Queen’s Wood, and of all the tools or toys ever made, Santa’s were always the strongest and best.
Santa never ate meat, and rarely vegetables, but seemed to thrive best on sweets - particularly candy canes and cookies. This vexed his mother, at first, worrying as a mother does for the health of her child. However, when she realized that it must be a special magic in him to thrive on these things, she made sure that he was given the sweetest, loveliest treats for all his meals. He grew large, and even more jolly so that his belly would shake whenever he laughed.
One day, the White Winter Queen summoned her son to her side. Santa was a young man by then, with long dark hair, a thick black beard, and twinkling blue eyes. The Queen told Santa that her time in the wood was almost done. She would be going back to where she was born, in another world, to live out the rest of her days in quiet retirement. She showed him a two mirrors, one which she would carry with her, and one for him to keep, and explained to him that with these mirrors he would be able to talk to her whenever he wished. Then she placed her hand gently on his head, and passed some of her magic to him, to help him keep safe the Queen’s Wood and all who dwelled within it. As her power passed into Santa, his hair and beard turned a snowy white color. She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, then turned and walked away into the woods.
Santa found that he could do more than he ever had, including summoning winter snow storms or clearing the skies with a thought. He also found he could travel quite easily and quickly anywhere he wanted, by summoning the North Wind to carry him. The wind was cold, though, and uncomfortable without somewhere to sit, so he fashioned for himself a bright red sleigh with one reindeer to help him steer.
One day, Santa discovered that he had made so many toys and useful things that the residents of the Queen’s Wood (now Santa’s Wood) no longer needed him to make more, for what he had made for them never broke. He wondered what he should do, and for a while grew sad thinking that he wasn’t needed any longer. He decided to take his sleight out into the wide world, to see if there was somewhere else where people needed toys and fidgets and useful things that never broke.
On the back of the North Wind, Santa traveled around the whole wide world, watching quietly the people he found. There were poor people, rich people, sad people, and happy people. There were kings and beggars, merchants, maids, wives and widows. Children and adults. So many people, and a great many of them didn’t have as much as they needed. As Santa flew back home, he thought about all that he had seen, which included both the best and the worst that people could be, and he resolved to do what he could to bring some joy into the lives of the good people he had found.