Just about everywhere now Santa’s clothes are red with white fur trimmings. And how come he uses reindeer, an animal probably not familiar to the original American and British artists who drew him, and why is he supposed to live in snowy lands to the north, for most children?

Well, strangely enough there is a genuine religious connection with all of the above, a connection which is more than 4000 years old.

I remember well the excitement when in 1954 Roger Bannister, a 25-year-old British medical student, not a professional athlete, became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes. His time was 3mins 59.4 seconds, achieved at the Iffley Road track in Oxford and watched by about 3,000 spectators. In spite of strong cross winds with 30 m.p.h. gusts he broke the psychological barrier and made a four minute mile possible for every good miler. Inside two years the first three in top class mile races always broke the four minute mile. Today the record is around 3 minutes 43 seconds.