Fascinating article about Father Christmas

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Mon, 2002-12-23 12:18

penmagic-(unver...

Fascinating article about Father Christmas

Just read this in The Week, it's fascinating so I'm typing up the WHOLE THING for y'all, isn't that kind?

"The birth of Father Christmas

The direct ancestor of Father Christmas is probably Druidic- a certain pagan spirit regularly appeared in medieval mummers' plays wearing long robes with holly sprigs in his long white hair. The pagan origins of Father Christmas were sanitised with the introduction of the cult of St Nicholas (270-310AD)- a bishop of Myra in modern-day Turkey renowned for his kindness to children. In the 11th century the saint's remains were enshrined in a church in Bari, an Italian city visited by the first Crusaders, who are said to have carried stories about him back to their homelands. The anniversary of St Nicholas's death on 6 December became a day to exchange gifts and his legend helped provide a Christian justification for the essentially pagan tradition of gift-giving at Christmas.

It was the Dutch who corrupted the name St Nicholas to Sinterklaas, which English-speaking populations in the new world adapted to Santa Claus. In his earlier incarnations Santa Claus was often shown as tall and thin, given to wearing a variety of colours and accompanied by an angel. Thin in 1931 Coca-Cola hired the Swedish artist Haddon Sundblom to design a Christmas ad campaign. Sundblom had the brilliant idea of redesigning Santa in Coca-cola's corporate red and white colours. He chose a retired Coca-Cola salesman- plump and bearded- to be his model for the campaign, and the modern Santa was born."
Well I'd certainly never heard that before.
…!!
Discuss.

Mon, 2002-12-23 19:21

justyn_thyme

I think the modern Santa goes back a little further than 1931, though not much. I read someplace a couple of years ago that the modern HO HO HO Santa first surfaced in Britain in the late 19th century....again as an advertising gimmick of some kind. I'm sure Coca Cola did the HO HO HO Santa as well, it's just that 1931 sounds a bit recent to the the first. My father would have been in high school at that time. On the other hand, the ball point pen was invented during or shortly after WW2, so maybe it is that recent. It shows how "traditions" can get started. Prior to WW2, greeting cards were popular in Poland, for example, as well as all over the region. But they mostly disappeared under Communism. In the early 90s, greeting cards started to re-appear with a vengence....including Valentine's Day....which was never a holiday or event in Poland. Now, however, at least in the cities, you find the same Valentine's Day tat here that you find everywhere. The only thing they haven't taken on is American Thanksgiving. That would be a stretch.

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