As children up and down the country wait eagerly for the arrival of the man in red, it seems appropriate as a little nod to the festive season to see just where the legend that is Father Christmas or Santa Claus – whichever takes your fancy – came from…
Let’s start with the third century…
The legend of Father Christmas begins with St Nicholas, a Bishop born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Legend has it that St Nick gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. His feast day is celebrated on the 6th December which is the anniversary of his death.
Back in the 1400s…
This is when the earliest reference can be found to any physical character that can be associated with what we’d recognise as Father Christmas today. A medieval carol from the 1400s in which a character called ‘Sir Christëmas’ shares the news of Christ’s birth. He tells his audience to ‘Make good cheer and be right merry.’
Then the 1500s…
Each year on the 21st December in York a festival called Yule Ridings would take place where a man disguised as Yule carried cakes and meat through the streets and threw nuts into the crowd. However, the medieval version of antisocial behaviour meant that the event was canceled from 1572 due to what was described as ‘verie rude and barbarouse’ behaviour!
The 1600s sees a Father Christmas-like figure emerge
Ben Johnson, a significant British playwright, wrote “Christmas, His Masque” which was performed at the English royal court at Christmas of 1616. It featured a character with a long beard referred to as “old Christmas”. And despite the Puritans stamping out Christmas and most other recognised holidays in 1647, by 1660 it was back… and Father Christmas continued to appear on stages up and down the country for the next 200 years. However this Father Christmas was looked very different to the one we know today… he was largely focused on feasting and games, he had no connection with presents, and was generally seen as a figure of fun.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic…
A very different version was emerging in the early 1800s, with old Dutch families still telling tales of “Sinterklaas” on St Nicholas’s Day. He was said to fly over the city in a wagon and climb down chimneys to deliver presents.
And what about Santa Claus?
In 1864 it’s believed Santa Claus arrived in the UK, and by the 1880s had merged with Father Christmas. Generous, jolly and dedicated to children, this new version of Father Christmas was welcomed by the Victorians who transformed and revived the celebration so that it was much more focused on children. It was in Victorian times that we saw many of the modern day traditions emerging: the sending of Christmas cards, both Christmas Day and Boxing Day recognised as holidays, Christmas trees and the turkey for Christmas dinner.
Which leads us onto our own Christmas cheer…
As we all look ahead to the festive season and the opportunity to spend some quality time with our family and friends, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish our clients, our transcribers and indeed our friends and family the most wonderful Christmas. Thank you to everyone for your continued support throughout what has been a challenging year for us all. We so appreciate you all and wish you the very best for 2022.