Here, on the day after St Nicholas's Day, I'm afraid that I have some bad news to share with you.
Father Christmas is dead.
I realise that this will come as a shock to many of you but it's true. As British folklorist and historian Professor Ronald Hutton explains, 'Oh yes, he's dead. He was murdered and replaced over a hundred years ago by a sinister assassin from overseas, and his name ... is Santa Claus.'
Every year (since my beard turned white, anyway) I get asked to don the red and white suit and sit for photographers so that they can offer family Christmas portraits. And I also do my bit for my community by sitting in a specially constructed grotto at a local primary school and being fed mince pies in return for being nice to kiddies.
It's something I'm delighted to do as it makes so many children happy. It's genuinely humbling when you see the look on their faces and realise that they REALLY believe that you are Santa.
But not Father Christmas.
The sign on the door says 'Santa's Grotto'. The music playing is Santa Claus is coming to town, or I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus, or Santa Baby. There are no songs in the playlist that mention Father Christmas.
How many of you even say 'Father Christmas' any more? Not many I imagine. Santa has usurped him.
And no, they are not the same person.
Father Christmas is quintessentially British while Santa Claus in American (with Dutch roots) and the two characters are very different.
Let me explain ...
The first recognisable 'Father Christmas' that we know of appeared as 'Sir Christëmas' in a 1610 carol written by Richard Smart, the rector of Plymtree in Devon:
'Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell,
Who is there that singeth so?’
I am here, Sir Christëmas.
Welcome, my lord Christëmas,
Welcome to us all, both more and less
Come near, Nowell!’
The character proved to be very popular and was more thoroughly fleshed out by writer Ben Jonson in 1616 when 'Old Christmas' or 'Captaine Christmas' appears in his play Christmas his Masque, together with his children: Misrule, Carol, Mince Pie, Gambol, Post-and-Pan, New Years Gift, Mumming, Wassail, and (bizarrely) Baby Cake. In this particular entertainment, Old Christmas was described as the personification of Yule-tide, the life and soul of the party, and the spirit of conviviality. However, he was not a gift-giver (that bit is important) and he was definitely nothing to do with St Nicholas or children (that bit is also quite important). Yule-tide was for adults.
Of course, the Puritans did their damnedest to get rid of the character as he was associated with fun and frolic and all of the other F words that made Puritans froth at the mouth, but he survived and enjoyed a huge revival during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Victorian love of Christmas made Father Christmas the ambassador of good cheer, but he still didn't look like the Father Christmas we know today. He was often shown as old and bearded but various images of him from those times have him dressed in furs or tartan or tweed and often in contemporary garb. One image that seems to have stuck in the public imagination was John Leech’s illustration of the Ghost of Christmas Present for Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843) in which a huge Brian Blessed lookalike is seen sitting among piles of food and drink, and wearing a loose-fitting fur-trimmed green gown.
But then, things start to turn bad for Daddy C ...
While Father Christmas was wassailing and yule-logging and making merry with the grown-ups, across the sea in America a Dutch Saint called Sinterklaas - AKA St Nicholas, the patron saint of children - was making his presence known. St Nicholas travelled to the new world with Dutch colonists (New York was originally called New Amsterdam) and had a reputation for gift-giving - especially to children on St Nicholas' Eve (December 5th) and on St Nicholas' Day morning (6th).
Nicholas (280-342) was originally a Greek bishop who was often depicted as wearing long red robes, a bishop's mitre and a long white beard (see where this is going?). He was accompanied by Black Peter (Zwarte Piet), a small dark child or dwarfish Moor who St Nick had rescued. Peter became associated with chimneys and chimney sweeps due to the peasant custom of using soot on the face to impersonate him. This, incidentally, is perhaps why chimneys feature so prominently in modern Santa Claus myth. In some parts of Europe, Sinterklaas was accompanied by a gnome instead, wearing a red or brown outfit. He carried a small fir tree (a sprig of which brings good luck and the return of Spring to a Winter household) and a bag of toys and may have been the template for Santa's elves.
The Dutch tradition of giving presents on St Nicholas' Eve remained popular in New York for many years among the descendants of the settlers.
But then, in 1823, along came an academic called Clement Clarke Moore and it was he who finally did for Father Christmas. Although, in fairness, his only real crime was to write a poem. It was called A visit from St Nicholas and it's the one that starts:
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.'
Moore took the traditions surrounding Sinterklaas but transferred the action to Christmas Eve. He had St Nicholas driving a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer (he also invented the names we know today - except Rudolf who was a later addition). He described his outfit of red trimmed with fur and his big white beard. And, most importantly, he was the first person to make the connection between Christmas and Sinterklaas's propensity for gift-giving to children.
Moore supposedly wrote the poem for his own children but a friend, the Rev David Butler, was much taken by the piece and arranged to have it published anonymously in the Christmas edition of the Troy New York Sentinel newspaper. The poem was a huge hit and was reprinted many times. The rest, as they say, is history.
'Santa Claus', as he had now become known, soon caught the eye of marketing people. Here's an 1868 advertisement for sugar plums painted by Lewis Prang for the US Confection Company of New York.
And I'm sure we all know Thomas Nast's famous 1881 image for the Coca-Cola company - a major player in creating the modern image of Santa.
Eventually, this new Santa Claus character came across the sea to the UK armed, as Professor Hutton puts it, 'with a particularly deadly weapon, that being the child market. One thing that Father Christmas never did was pay particular attention to children. That was Santa's secret weapon'.
And wasn't it a powerful one?
Within no time at all, Christmas became the new St Nicholas' night and the fight between the two characters - Father Christmas and Santa Claus - was decisively won by the interloper thanks to public support. Which is no surprise really. How could Santa possibly lose with the weight of the world's children behind him?
And that was the day that Father Christmas effectively died.
I still maintain that it's a huge shame. Father Christmas represented the good things about Christmas: being with loved ones, celebration, eating, drinking and making merry. Santa, meanwhile, has become the patron saint of commercialism, greed, excess and parents fighting at toy shops to grab the last few must-have toys - be they Cabbage Patch Dolls, Ninja Turtles, Tracy Islands, Peppa Pigs or Paw Patrol figures (depending on the decade). What was a sensible, family-oriented festival where, for once, the workers of this world could actually relax and chill out, has now become the busiest and most stressful and chaotic fortnight of the year.
All of which is why every time I hear the name Santa Claus, I sigh a little sigh for the unfortunate, late Father Christmas.
Happy holidays everyone!
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My thanks to Professor Ronald Hutton and to my old boss, John Lloyd at QI Ltd, for the quotes I've lifted from an episode of BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity on which Ronald was a guest, and I was involved in researching.
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