The Evolution of Father Christmas

Who is Father Christmas?

Father Christmas is the name given to the personification of Christmas in England. He is also increasingly called “Santa” (the American word), but the two were once very different figures with separate origins. Father Christmas is a much older tradition and, like many Christmas traditions, may have roots in the ancient pagan religion of England.

Is Father Christmas really descended from a pagan god?

To the ancient Germanic people (including the Norse and Anglo Saxons), one of the most important celebrations of the year was “Yule”, the midwinter festival focusing on the father and head of the Germanic gods. His name was Odin, to the Norse, or Wōden to the Anglo-Saxons of pre-Christian England.

During Yule, he would fly through the skies on the back of his giant 8 legged horse Sleipnir leading the other gods in the Wild Hunt across the sky. Families would gather together for a Yule feast, and decorate their homes with evergreen plants like holy, mistletoe, and pine-tree branches.

When Christianity came, the Germanic religions fell, but many of their traditions survived, becoming parts of the folklore and Christian tradition in northern Europe. Yule became Christmas, which has evolved into one of the most widely celebrated holidays on Earth. You can learn more about the pagan origins of Christmas in this great video. The idea of  feasting and decorating with evergreens remained, but Wōden was removed in favour of Christ. Or was he? Maybe not. Wōden/Odin often took the disguise of a wise, bearded old man, dressed in a cloak, with a pointed hat. He flew through the midwinter skies spreading cheer. Sound familiar? Another name for Odin in Norse was Jólfaðr, or “Yule-father” It seems likely to me that the father of the Gods, Wōden, may have survived Christianisation in England by disguising himself as Father Christmas, the English personification of Christmas.

There is a problem with this though. The Anglo Saxons became fully Christian in the 600s, and the Norse Vikings who occupied England followed in the 900s. A figure personifying Christmas is not recorded until the 1400s, and only got the name Father Christmas in the 1600s. So it may be merely a coincidence. Or it may be that there are gaps in our records, and some folk memory linking Wōden to Christmas survived, bridging that gap.

We do know that the myth of Wōden’s Great Hunt survived long after Christianisation as a folk legend in England and many other Germanic countries, so it seems very plausible to me that the All-father may have survived in Christmas too. So there we go, Father Christmas may be Wōden. But what about Santa?

So could Santa Claus be a pagan god too?

It may surprise you to learn that, for most of their histories, Father Christmas and Santa were fairly unrelated figures. Father Christmas began centuries ago as the English personification of Christmas, whereas his American counterpart Santa Claus is only around 200 years old, and claims descent from an the ancient Greek Saint Nicholas, via the Dutch Christmas-man, Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas was brought to America by the Dutch, and the name evolved to “Santa Claus” in English. It is thought that Santa Claus was also heavily influenced by Father Christmas, who was brought to America by the British. It may be that Sinterklaas also has his origins in Odin/Wōden, and that Saint Nicolas is just part of his Christian-friendly disguise. It was common for early Christian missionaries to equate pagan gods with Saints in-order to ease people into Christianity. Both FC and Santa became popular in Germanic countries, and have influenced each other over time, eventually merging into a single figure during the late 1800s as American culture washed into England.

The Evolution of Father Christmas

Father Christmas has changed a lot throughout history. Here I will try to show you those changes, and what I think of as the 4 different stages of being Father Christmas (5 if you count Wōden/Odin!).

The earliest Christmas-man

We don’t know much about Christmas in the Middle Ages, and it may be that there was a personification of Christmas much earlier than our records. As most records were kept by the Church, it is possible that traditions reflecting the pagan origins of Christmas were just not recorded, and any songs or stories or plays that could link Wōden to Father Christmas are long lost now. The first recorded personifications of Christmas are in the 1400s as “Sir Christmas”, or “the King of Christmas”, who rode a horse through the town “Making good cheer and being right merry”. This personification became popular for the next couple of centuries under several names, and was sometimes accompanied by or equated with another Christmas figure: The Lord of Misrule. 

The name “Father Christmas” is first recorded in the 1600s, in political pamphlets and comics complaining about the puritanical government, who banned Christmas in 1647. My illustration (below) is based on one such pamphlet from 1658. In the 1700s, Christmas became less of a big deal in England, and Father Christmas became a little more than a stock character in Christmas plays.

The Christmas-man returns!

Father Christmas was brought back from being almost forgotten, by poets and authors in the 1800s. The first was Walter Scott, who wrote a poem in 1806 including a verse about how much better life had been in the 1500s, when Christmas was more popular, and “Old Christmas” made everyone merry. Several poets, authors, and illustrators were inspired by this to begin imagining a new Father Christmas, who would ride through England on a Yule goat, and carrying a Yule log (both possibly relics of Pagan customs). The most famous example is in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, which featured ‘The Ghost of Christmas Present’, heavily inspired by the 19th century father Christmas.

Santa Claus comes to town

The American Christmas-man, Santa Claus, crossed the Atlantic in the mid 1800s. He was still very new, probably forming in the early 1800s based on a combination of Father Christmas and the Dutch Sinterklaas.  At first he was seen as a different figure to Father Christmas, and the two would both be seen in parades and exhibits, separately. But American culture had a big effect of Christmas in the UK.

Previously Christmas had mainly been a holiday for adults, but increasingly it was aimed at children. The idea that Father Christmas was a giver of gifts became more popular. Gradually Father Christmas’s appearance became more standardised, and more similar to Santa. He was still found in several different colours, but the idea of a cloak and pointed hat and hood became standard. Santa’s reindeer and sleigh also crossed the Atlantic, and became part of Father Christmas’s tradition. By the 1910s, the idea that they were separate figures was basically gone, and they became two names for the same figure. “Father Christmas” remained by far the most common name in England, but calling him “Santa Claus” gained popularity, especially in Scotland and Ireland. 

Father Christmas merges with Santa

Shortly after the merger between the two was complete, Coca Cola adopted Santa as a spokesperson, which lead to a major standardisation of the images of Santa/Father Christmas. He threw away his old varied wardrobe of greens, blues and whites, in favour of the red coat we see him in today (see below). The British version still retains some individuality, such as his love of mince pies (rather than the cookies he eats in America), but otherwise has been entirely absorbed.

Father Christmas is still the more common name in Britain overall, but among younger people, the name Santa is definitely winning.  Which is kind of sad, isn’t it? For half a millennium, maybe much more, England has had its own, homegrown Christmas-man. America slapped one together barely 200 years ago, shipped him out to the world, and already he has largely replaced ours. With the whole weight of the American media behind Santa, I wonder how long it will  be before “Father Christmas” is forgotten, and Santa becomes the default name in England.