The Story of Father Christmas and Santa Claus from Christmas Costume

Both Santa and Father Christmas are believed to be mythical characters. Of course anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that they are, in actual fact, a real, magical beings that live, along with Mrs. Claus and his elf helpers, at the North Pole! That accepted there is a debate which one you choose to believe in?

Every year Santa Claus characters in shopping centers around the country find themselves embroiled in deep philosophical debates about whether or not they are the real Santa Claus. We have even heard of one shopping mall Santa who goes so far as to calm down aggressive youngsters who accuse him of not being the real Santa by telling them that indeed, he is not the real Santa, but he is the real Father Christmas - and vice versa when they ask if he the real Father Christmas!

We asked our friends at Angels Fancy Dress Shop in London's West End to carry out a straw-poll for us, so they asked 30 of their costume customers, 'Do you know the difference between a Santa and Father Christmas costume?'

Only five people knew the difference and could explain it without any prompting or clues; after being shown photographs of Santa and Father Christmas, a further five people were able point out which was which; the remaining 20 did not know that there was any difference at all - to the extent that even when shown the photographs, they were unable to pick out which one was Santa!

Incidentally, the five that were able to explain the difference immediately were all men...!

This Angels poll shows that there is clearly a need for clarification, so here goes...

Santa

Santa Claus is also known as Sinterklaas, Kris Kringle or just good old Santa.

Although he is entirely separate from Santa, Saint Nicholas (among many other influences) is thought to be the origin of this character. Confusingly, Saint Nick wore a long red cape (rather like Father Christmas), a hat and he carried a long gold staff. Saint Nicholas had a reputation as a secret gift giver, leaving donations in the shoes of those in need. Even in present times children leave their shoes out on his feast day (6th December) and wake to find gifts in and around the shoes in the morning. It is argued that this is where we get the tradition of leaving out stockings (socks) for gifts.

Saint Nicholas is the Patron Saint of both Amsterdam and Moscow and his popularity spread throughout Christian areas surrounding Turkey, where he lived. The tradition of celebrating Saint Nicholas is thought to have arrived in North America with Dutch immigrants, before mixing with other influences in the developing North America to grow into the Christmas character that everybody knows and loves today.

Santa Claus' costume is a fur-trimmed red jacket, trousers and hat. He wears black boots and has a wide leather belt with a big buckle, a look that is often solely attributed to the 1930's advertising campaigns of Coca-Cola®. However, a Thomas Nast cartoon for Harper's Weekly in 1863 depicts this same red and white-clad character long before Coca-Cola® ever used him as a marketing tool - it is merely co-incidence that these are the colours associated with the iconic drinks brand. Nast is credited with cementing our modern idea of Santa as a heavyset man with a beard, although his Santa character was designed to look somewhat elf-like and to some modern eyes he was unfriendly and a little disturbing.

What is indisputable is that Coca-Cola® developed him into a much more jovial character during the 20th century - this has filtered down through many other incarnations of Santa and has now entered the general western consciousness as a canonical image. Much like Nast and his cartoons for Harper's Weekly, Coca-Cola® also began with an unapproachable looking Santa but later decided to make him more user-friendly.

Father Christmas

Many references to Santa list St Nicholas et al as the originator of both Father Christmas and Santa, and then go on to say that Santa and Father Christmas are the same. Well, most assuredly they are not!

Take a look at Father Christmas' costume, where are the trousers? For practicalities sake, many a shopping centre Christmas characters would have trousers, but his costume styling really owes much more to a time when trousers were not invented - pre medieval times!

Looking through various different histories of Father Christmas (and there are very many versions out there!) Father Christmas was completely separated from St Nicholas. The confusion has arisen because he now wears a long red robe and St Nick wore a long red cape.

In order to find the true origins of Father Christmas we need to go way, WAY back in the mists of European and British history to when the Green Man was celebrated as the personification of Nature. He had a jovial face, often bearded, and in many instances representations show him with his face and beard constructed from leaves. The Green Man was garlanded with Ivy and berry-festooned holly. Depictions of the face of the Green Man can be found carved into some of the oldest churches around the UK. These are known as 'foliate heads', and such images re-gained popularity in Victorian design.

The Green Man was a symbol of plenty, but was not associated with the giving of gifts. It was the Victorians that combined the Green Man with St Nicholas, changing the colour of his clothing to red and associating him with the practice of giving gifts.

Like the Green Man before him, Father Christmas has always been a jovial Character. His costume is a full-length red robe, sometimes with a hood attached and often with a short cape - as shown. He wears black boots and has either a red fabric belt or a white rope belt.

So Santa or Father Christmas?

Santa appears on many commercials, advertisements and Christmas Cards - his popularity appears to be boundless. However, Father Christmas has British roots and there is something undeniably special about the age-old story behind his origin.

We spoke to Angels Fancy Dress about which was more popular. Angels are the experts - their company was founded in 1840, at the time when the Victorians were developing many of the traditions that we now associate with Christmas. They hire Father Christmas and Santa Claus costumes to many people across the social spectrum, including well known celebrities and politicians. In the early 1970's Ted Heath (the Conservative Prime Minister) commissioned a blue Father Christmas costume, spurning the socialist red! If only we could ask him why they didn't go for a Santa...?

Angels Fancy Dress tell us that over the past five to ten years people looking for Father Christmas costumes have been vastly outnumbered by those wanting to dress as the more commercially familiar Santa Claus character. Over Christmas 2008 virtually no one was hiring Father Christmas costumes at all - what a shame since he's the true British face of Christmas! Perhaps it's time someone did something to bring Father Christmas back into the hearts and minds of the great British public...