Sunday, 15 December 2024

Santa, Father Christmas Or Christmas Goat?

In Britain we call him the chubby, white bearded, red suited guy who delivers presents as Father Christmas but he is a man of many names from St. Nick to Santa to Kris Kringle which must confuse the reindeer about who exactly they are dragging around each Christmas Eve.
Santa Claus is an American mangling of the name Sinterklaas which was the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas while Kris Kringle was a mangling of the name 'Christkindlein' which is the German for 'Christ Child' referring to the baby in the manger although now they also call him Der Weihnachtsmann or Christmas Man.
Father Christmas began life in the 15th Century as Sir Christëmas who was a symbol of the Season which morphed into Father Christmas and is the name in England, Australia and New Zealand and also in France (Père Noël) and in Spain (Papá Noel) while in Chile, children wait for Viejito Pascuero (Old Man Christmas) but we really should take his name from what his family call him in Lapland which is Joulupukki, or Christmas Goat as the original gift-giver was a goat.
So what is his real name? Surprisingly, the first guy flying around giving out presents for good behaviour in Yuletide was Norse God Odin who flew around in December and all derivations of him since are based on him and it was round 1200 that the Church decided they needed a Yuletide character and successfully muscled in with their own guy, Saint Nicholas, who finally became Santa Claus and merged with Father Christmas in all but name.

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