Even though the fable of one beloved Christmas character pre-dates Christianity, it is in the early Christian era that gave rise to the notion of Father Christmas.
What's in a Name?
Saint Nicholas, Santa Clause, Father Christmas, Pare Noel, take your pick of the names used to describe this jolly rotund white-bearded, red-cloaked deliverer of Christmas presents and cheer. He is a universal figure who appears in many cultures and countries from ancient times.
St. Nicholas
The modern Father Christmas story begins in the now southern Turkish village of Patara, where in the third century, a boy named Nicholas was born to a wealthy family. Nicholas was brought up as a devout Christian but was orphaned at an early age; however as he grew older he heeded the words of Jesus Christ: “Sell what you own and help the poor”. Nicholas used much of his wealth to help the needy, the suffering, the poor and the infirm. His good deeds saw him in time become the Bishop of Myra.
In those ancient days, giving a dowry was an essential part of the marriage contract -- the greater the dowry the better the match. If no dowry could be found, the women’s fate was one of drudgery or worse, to be sold into slavery.
Nicholas heard of the plight of a poor family with three daughters whose father was unable to raise a dowry for any of them. With no prospect of marriage the daughters faced a bleak and destitute future; one of the sisters would have to support the rest by joining a bordello.
One night a bag of gold was tossed through the old man’s window and landed in a stocking hanging by a fire to dry. Twice more bags of gold found their way into each of the sisters’ stockings. Legend has it that St. Nicholas was the benefactor and his largess led not just to the family’s salvation but also to hanging of Christmas stockings over the fireplace to receive gifts.
Puritans
Father Christmas AKA Santa Claus first appears as a jolly old man as a reaction against the Puritans’ resistance to celebrate Christmas. The 17th century English writer Ben Johnson gave 'Sir Christmas ' his appearance but it was an American poet who provided Sir Christmas with his long fur-trimmed coat, flowing beard and the sleigh pulled by reindeers.
The early 19th century American poet Clement Clarke Moore established the modern image of Father Christmas in his much-parodied poem A Visit from St Nicholas more popularly known as The Night Before Christmas.
Modern Father Christmas
First published in the New York newspaper The Sentinel on Christmas Eve 1823, Moore’s description of St. Nicholas as a white-bearded, round-bellied jolly old man has remained the popular Western image since then. Moore even gave Father Christmas his eight reindeer and named them all (Rudolf was not one) set the sleigh on the roof and had Father Christmas clamber down the chimney to deposit his haul of presents in socks and stockings hung on the mantelpiece.
Thomas Nast first drew a jolly, fat-bellied, white whiskered and red-faced old man in the 1860s for the cover of Harper’s Weekly and Haddon Sunblom for the Coca Cola Company adopted this image in the early 1930s and. in doing so the company immortalised the modern image of Santa Clause.
In many cultures it is a tradition to leave a morsel for Santa to eat and drink to offer thanks and to refresh him on his journey.
Father Cristmas in Lapland and more Christmas customs
