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You may know him as Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle or Annual Gift Man (if you believe the writers of The Simpsons) but when I was very little the jolly fat man in the red suit was always known as Father Christmas.
At some point during my childhood though, the name Santa Claus started to rise in popularity, probably due to the way that British TV gradually started to become much more Americanised. This makes me wonder how many young children in the UK today know only the name Santa Claus, and whether it’s just that Santa Claus seems a little bit more “grown up” sounding than Father Christmas, so older children feel less babyish with this name?
Anyway, this was an idle musing of mine, but I thought it would be an interesting one for you to mull over. Tomorrow’s survey will be asking you which name you personally prefer, so have a little think and come back tomorrow to cast your vote. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your feelings about this, so why not post a comment below.
Sticking with the Father Christmas theme, here are some interesting facts about the man himself that you may not know:-
- Traditionally, if you have been naughty, Father Christmas would just leave you a piece of coal. Try getting that to play on your Nintendo Wii.
- Depending on where you live, his home could either be at the North Pole or perhaps Lapland, although every Nordic country lays claim to his residence and magical toy factory being situated within it’s borders.
- In 2008, Canada officially awarded Santa with Canadian citizenship, since the North Pole is apparently under Canadian jurisdiction.
- When writing your letter to Santa, don’t forget the postcode, which is H0H 0H0 (look at it carefully!). This is the official Canadian postcode for the North Pole!
- The traditional red and white suit was cemented in history thanks to Coca Cola, who have been using this image since the 1930’s to advertise their beverage. Presumably he was given red and white to tie in with the soft drink can colours?
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December 18th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I look at it the other way round – when did Old Nick become Father Christmas?
Many Lutherans still celebrate gift giving on the 6th December as recognition that the 25th is in rememberance of Jesus birthday, while orthodox tradition requires 6th January to be adhered to as the correct date when the three kings cam offering their gifts.
But as shopping replaces christianity as the religion of choice in western society I guess it was inevitable the iconography would get subverted and the holiday season reduced from a whole month to a single day.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Santa Claus is an obvious derivation of Saint Nicholas.
Wikpedia has much on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_claus
December 18th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Interesting. It seems Father Christmas has been about since the 17th century and was the inspiration for the Ghost of Christmas Present in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. He tended to wear green instead of red.
I still (sort of) feel justified in my original question though, as Father Christmas is definitely far more British than Santa Claus!
December 19th, 2009 at 9:02 am
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December 19th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Oranjepan, I think you mean St Nick (Nicholas). Old Nick is another name for the devil!
December 19th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Eeep! Well spotted Karen.
You don’t want to get those two mixed up, but then again, Santa is an anagram of Satan, and you never see the two of them in the room at the same time…
December 20th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Hyum… I vividly remember being told by a priest when I was a child that St Nicholas was the angel which fell and became the devil and that christmas day is the one day he gives you gifts as a reward for all your good deeds, instead of punishing you for your bad deeds as he does for the rest of the year.
This, he explained, is all down to the power of Christian forgiveness and why it is bad luck to ever catch sight of Father Christmas. Maybe it didn’t help that I watched Star Wars for the first time that year!
I asked him about the Santa’s grotto in the shopping centre I’d been begging my parents to take me to and he said the evil shopping centre managers were trying to lead us into the way of temptation and waste money on rubbish we’d regret spending…
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:22 pm
So perhaps my anagram pondering isn’t that far off after all! Does the Devil have claws (CLAUS) though
I tend to think of him having cloven hooves, which would kind of limit the potential for claws.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:35 am
I am 49 and grew up in the North East of the UK. I’ve only ever known Santa Clause, but heard of Father Christmas more when I moved south, about 20 years ago.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:54 am
That’s interesting Allison. It’s surprising considering how small the UK is that there can be such variations in things such as this.