Aimee Howarth brings you an interview with The Yorker directors on the final day of the advent articles
Aimee Howarth speaks to YUSU's sabbatical officers about their Christmas Day routine for day 17 of the advent calendar
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The English tradition of Father Christmas began with a figure Sir Christëmas who appeared in a carol in the mid-fifteenth century. Interestingly enough, Sir Christëmas was not a gift-giver as such but merely a yule-tide visitor. The tradition evolved through the Victorian revival of Christmas and Father Christmas famously appears in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as the ghost of Christmas present. Nowadays the vision of Father Christmas we look to at Christmas has become indistinguishable from the present-giving Santa Claus American culture has immortalised in film and advertising.
Saint Nicholas became widely known through the famous poem by Clement Clarke Moore, 'The Night Before Christmas'.
The origin of Santa Claus himself was brought about by the attitudes of colonial settlers in America. Many Puritans rejected the English tradition of Father Christmas and groups of Dutch immigrants reinvented the Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas tradition. Saint Nicholas was a bishop in modern-day Turkey and so is traditionally depicted in Bishop’s robes and rides a white horse. He was made the patron saint of children and is also said to be accompanied by Black Peters, three innocent Moorish boys he saved from execution. On Saint Nicholas’ Eve he delivers candy to good children and willow or birch branches to naughty children (with which they will be whipped). Some tales even tell of Saint Nicholas tossing bad children into his sack and carrying them back with him. Saint Nicholas is still celebrated across parts of Europe on the 5th December each year and so is acknowledged separately from Santa Claus and Father Christmas.
Saint Nicholas became widely known through the famous poem by Clement Clarke Moore, originally called ‘The Visit of St. Nicholas’ but now referred to as ‘The Night Before Christmas’. The name Santa Claus was adopted when people anglicised the colloquial Dutch Sinterklaas rather than using the more formal Saint Nicholas. In the 1860s, Thomas Nast illustrated the poem, dressing St. Nicholas in a belted jacket and furry cap. After this Santa was often shown in a red jacket and blue trousers until the 1931 Coca-Cola advertising campaign which established the now recognised image of Santa in a red-outfit with white trimmings.
In Sweden Santa is called Jultomte and is a Christmas gnome who lives under the floorboards of the house, and emerges in a sleigh drawn by a goat to deliver a sack of gifts to the Swedish children. Traditionally wearing red and sporting a white beard, the gnome-like figure of Jultomte seems a definite source of inspiration for the image of Santa Claus who was also given his drooping red and white hat by the Swedish artist Haddon Sundblom. It is thought that Scandinavian influences also assigned Santa his home in the North Pole and his elf or gnome-like assistants.
Across other parts of Europe however, children await an entirely different gift-giver on Christmas Eve. Many of these figures are more closely bound up in the Biblical story of the birth of Christ, relating to the religious origins of Christmas. While English children leave out a mince pie and a glass of sherry for Santa and maybe a few carrots for the reindeer, Spanish children fill shoes with straw, carrots and barley for the horses of the three wise men or "Los Reyes Magos" who retrace their journey to Bethlehem each year. One of the wise men, Balthazar, leaves the children gifts on his way.
In Italy, a woman, Le Befana, is the traditional gift-giver. She is said to have offered the three wise men shelter during their search for the newly born Jesus and in return they asked her to join them on their journey. She is said to have declined, replying that she had too much housework. However, she soon changed her mind and set out to find the wise men and the baby Jesus. Lore has it that as she continues her search she leaves presents to good children, and coal to the bad children.
Whether you’re religious or not, it’s clear that gift-giving is a pretty major part of Christmas. And even though Santa Claus has become an international media figure, it’s interesting to see that many countries still celebrate their traditional cultural icons during the festive period. Don’t forget the jolly, jelly-bellied, red and white Santa Claus rearing his bearded head everywhere isn’t the only one delivering gifts this Christmas.
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