Discover Father Christmas's Roots
From a Fourth-Century Turkish Bishop, Santa Claus Has Come Far
Dec 23, 2008
Greenland, Lapland, the North Pole - nobody knows for sure where Father Christmas lives, but children the world over look forward each Christmas to the coming of jolly old Father Christmas in a red suit, with a sack of presents on his back.
The Origins of Father Christmas
Father Christmas dates back to the fourth-century and St Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra. Many stories were told about the kind bishop, who became the patron saint of children. He is said once to have travelled to the West, to deliver fruit and honey cakes to hungry children. In another story, he provided dowries of gold for the three daughters of a poor nobleman. One of the bags of gold dropped down the chimney and landed in a stocking hung up to dry – and that’s why some countries have Christmas stockings.
Father Christmas and the Church
When the Church chose 6 December as St Nicholas' Day, it became the custom for someone dressed as St Nicholas to visit children. Good children were rewarded with presents, and bad children threatened with punishment (though it is doubtful whether the original St Nicholas would have subscribed to this attitude!) In countries such asHolland, Germany and Belgium, the tradition of St Nicholas Day is still very much alive.
After the Reformation, the whole idea of saints went out of favour in Protestant countries. In England, St Nicholas merged with the pagan character of Old Christmas in the medieval entertainments called mummers’ plays.
Father Christmas Reaches the New World
While the tradition of Father Christmas evolved in Europe, Dutch settlers in America took the tradition of St Nicholas with them. The custom of leaving out your shoes for ‘Sinterklaas’ soon spread across the country.
In 1822 Dr Clement Clarke Moore, a professor in New York, wrote a poem for his children, ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’. It was published in ‘The Troy Sentinel’, and overnight changed the kindly bishop into the Father Christmas we know today.
‘His eyes how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry.
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.’
Modern Additions to Father Christmas
Magazine illustrators did the rest, adding the final touches to the jovial Father Christmas in a red suit, flying across the rooftops in a reindeer-drawn sleigh. Santa Claus recrossed the Atlantic and merged with Old Christmas to become Father Christmas in England; nowadays the names are interchangeable.
Today, a town in Indiana called Santa Claus receives over three million letters every Christmas from children all over the world – and there are many others, sent to Greenland, Lapland and the North Pole. From being a bishop in fourth-century Turkey, St Nicholas has indeed come a long way!
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