Friday, December 23, 2011

The difference between Santa Claus and Father Christmas

As a festive offering I thought I'd post a little information on the Big Guys in Red given that I'd happened to mention this to my father and he responded with "I never knew that".

Santa Claus and Father Christmas are not the same person. Santa is an American derivative of the Dutch figure; Father Christmas is more English/German/pagan. In attitude Santa is the gift-giver while Father Christmas is the merry maker - Santa brings the booze; Father Christmas encourages you to enjoy it ;-)

In appearance Santa Claus wears a short jacket and a hat; Father Christmas wears a robe with a hood. Locally the Three Kings Parade features Father Christmas - the hoodie you do want to hug.

A 'fact' that does need to be scotched is that they both wear red and white due to the Coca Cola adverts - they both wore red but also green or brown prior to Coca Cola; however it could be said that red is now the predominant shade due this public perception.

On an atheistic note if you wish someone Happy Holidays and they get snotty about you not using the C word ask them why they don't consider this time to be a Holy Day which is where the word derives its meaning :-)

And on that note I wish everyone a happy,pleasant and fun holiday. See you in the New Year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should add more information on Father Christmas.

FlipC said...

Really? Not sure how much to add. I mean Santa Claus is based of a real person whereas Father Christmas is an anthropomorphic personification.

I can't even give a different geographical home as SC lived at the North Pole before moving to Lapland; whereas FC never really had a place to call his own and seems to be staying with Santa.

Anyway Happy Holidays.