Many people today think that Father Christmas is just the British name for Santa Claus who is just a modern version of Saint Nicholas. Whilst it is true that Father Christmas, St Nicholas and Santa are considered virtually the same today, the jolly old man who sneaks into our houses every 25 December began as very different people entirely.
This guy started out about 2BC as the Norse God Odin who was one of the principal gods in Norse mythology who would take on the character of the mid-winter Jul or Father Time wearing a long, green hooded cloak and a wreath of holly, ivy or mistletoe and would visit the Earth riding his eight-legged horse Sleipnir and give gifts to the good placed into shoes left by the chimney and punishments to the bad.
When the Vikings invaded Britain they brought their own midwinter traditions with them and introduced the concept of the Nordic Father Time, also known as King Frost or King Winter and the tradition of leaving out food and drink for his visit as it was thought that by being kind to him, the home owners would get something good in return such as a milder winter.
Father Time evolved into Sir Christëmas after the Church shoehorned in their beliefs into the British mid-winter celebrations by saying that the associated
merrymaking, drinking and singing was Sir Christëmas announcing the news of the birth of Christ on December 25th.
St. Nicholas didn't 'arrive' in Britain until after the Norman invasion, and when he did arrive his story was quickly absorbed into the legend of Father Christmas until the Puritans banned Christmas but after it was revived a decade later, the Christmas Adult celebrations of Father Christmas encouraging feasting, drinking and games were revived but the Victorians wanted to make Christmas more family friendly so they revived the folkloric Sir Christëmas into a new kind of old man to represent it, Father Christmas, who would bring presents to well behaved Children.
Shops and stores keen to improve sales and the depiction of Father Christmas as the 'Ghost of Christmas Present' by Charles Dickens with his green cloak and holly wreath crown helped to assimilate the jolly, gift bringing Father Christmas into society and associated with distributing gifts to the children.
SAINT NICHOLAS
The tradition of the Nordic style Odin mid-winter festival was strong throughout Europe and in the Netherlands the Church saw the opportunity to combine the traditional yule figure Odin into their own 4th-century Greek bishop from Myra, Saint Nicholas, (SinterKlaas in the Dutch language) and the Sinterklaasfeest arose where money and present was put into shoes based on the tale of the Saint who threw bags of gold down the chimney which landed in the stockings which were drying by the fire of three girls whose father was due to sell them into prostitution.
St Nicholas's fame spread throughout medieval Europe and was known as the Christ Child, das Christkindl in Germany, and impersonators dressed with white hair and a long, full beard in a long red cape wearing a red mitre and ruby ring, while holding a gold-coloured shepherd's staff with a curled top sat on a white horse which possessed the magical power to walk over rooftops, began making an appearance and children would put their shoes next to the chimney of the coal stove or fireplace, with a carrot or some hay in it for Sinterklaas's horse, and would find some presents in their shoes the next day, thrown down the chimney.
The Saint was accompanied by a demon called Krampus who would take away naughty children and throw them into a sack to take away and eat them and when the German and Dutch immigrants arrived in the New World in the 17th century, they brought the Sinterklaas festivities with them to their colonies and the names Christkindle and Sinterklaas slowly became anglicized to Kris Kringle and Santa Claus and mixed with the British Father Christmas.
While Sinterklaas travelled by Horse, the New World Santa Claus used a reindeer-drawn sleigh which, due to the magical reindeer that pulled it, was able to fly through the air and new layers were added to the legend including his base at the North Pole and an updated look which merged him with the British Victorian era Father Christmas which lost the mitre and crook to be replaced with a red cloak and hat with white fur trim and a black belt who climbed down the chimneys to place toys and sweets in stockings.
The single reindeer became eight after the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas (also known as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas) by Clement C. Moore, introduced eight reindeer which pulled Santa's Sleigh and named them Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem (later changed to Donner and Blitzen) and Rudolph with his bright red nose came along in 1934.
The New Look caught on for the 'new' modern Santa Claus and this image and the traditions became the default and made it's way back across the Atlantic to Europe although in Britain he is still Father Christmas, in Europe Sinterklaas, and in other places Santa Claus, the three have all became essentially the same person although their origins are of three very different people all originating from the present leaving, white bearded Norse God Odin.
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