Regarding question 2, splitting on /([ ,])/ should include the characters it splits on in the returned array. e.g., ('Claus' ',' 'Santa') instead of just ('Claus' 'Santa').

(The parentheses (to capture the match) are the key to this; the brackets are just there because I prefer to use a character class for single-character matching instead of alternation. /( |,)/ should do the same thing, too.)