Excerpt from Josiah King's The Examination and Tryal of Father Christmas (1686), published shortly after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England.

Father Christmas is the name used in many English-speaking countries for a figure associated with Christmas. A similar figure with the same name (in other languages) exists in several other countries, including France (Père Noël), Spain (Papá Noel, Pare Noel), almost all Hispanic South America (Papá Noel), Brazil (Papai Noel), Portugal (Pai Natal), Italy (Babbo Natale), Armenia (Kaghand Papik), India (Christmas Father), Andorra (Pare Noel), Romania (Moş Crăciun) and Turkey (Noel Baba) .

In past centuries, the English Father Christmas was also known as Old Father Christmas, Sir Christmas, and Lord Christmas.^{[citation needed]} Father Christmas is said to wear (these days) a bright red suit, but in Victorian and Tudor times he wore a bright green suit.^{[citation needed]}

Father Christmas typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, but was neither a gift bringer nor particularly associated with children.^{[citation needed]} A traditional figure in English folklore, Father Christmas is identified with the old belief in the Old English god Woden.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

In the English-speaking world, the character called "Father Christmas" influenced the development in the United States of Santa Claus,^{[citation needed]} and in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, most people now consider them to be interchangeable. However, although "Father Christmas" and "Santa Claus" have for most practical purposes been merged, historically the characters have different origins and are not identical.^{[citation needed]} Some authors such as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien,^{[citation needed]} have insisted on the traditional form of Father Christmas in preference to Santa Claus.

Father Christmas is often said to reside at the North Pole or less commonly, in the mountains of Korvatunturi in Lapland, Finland.

History[link]

The earliest English examples of the personification of Christmas are apparently those in carols of the 15th century.^{[citation needed]} The manuscript Bodelian Library MS Arch. Selden b. 26, which dates from circa 1458 AD,^[11] contains an anonymous Christmas carol (f. 8) which begins with the lyrics:

Goday, goday, my lord Sire Christëmas, goday!

Goday, Sire Christëmas, our king,
for ev'ry man, both old and ying,
is glad and blithe of your coming;
Goday!

Similarly, a carol attributed to Richard Smert (c. 1400–c. 1479^[12]) in British Additional MS 5665 (ff. 8v-9v),^[11] begins in dialog form:

Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell

Who is there that singeth so: Nowell, nowell, nowell?

I am here, Sire Christësmas.

Welcome, my lord, Sire Christëmas!

Welcome to us all, both more and less!

Come near, Nowell.

Both songs then proceed to proclaim the birth of Christ in the present tense and elaborate upon the story of the nativity as occasion for rejoicing.^{[citation needed]} The specific depiction of Christmas as a merry old man begins in the early 17th century,^[13] in the context of resistance to Puritan criticism of observation of the Christmas feast.^{[citation needed]} He is "old" because of the antiquity of the feast itself, which its defenders saw as a good old Christian custom that should be kept.^{[citation needed]} Allegory was popular at the time, so "old Christmas" was given a voice to protest his exclusion, along with the form of a rambunctious, jolly old man.^{[citation needed]} The earliest such was that in Ben Jonson's creation in Christmas his Masque^[14] dating from December 1616, in which Christmas appears "attir'd in round Hose, long Stockings, a close Doublet, a high crownd Hat with a Broach, a long thin beard, a Truncheon, little Ruffes, white shoes, his Scarffes, and Garters tyed crosse", and announces "Why Gentlemen, doe you know what you doe? ha! would you ha'kept me out? Christmas, old Christmas?" Later, in a masque by Thomas Nabbes, The Springs Glorie produced in 1638, "Christmas" appears as "an old reverend gentleman in furred gown and cap".^[15] The character continued to appear over the next 250 years, appearing as Sir Christmas, Lord Christmas or Father Christmas, the last becoming the most common.^{[citation needed]} A book dating from the time of the Commonwealth, The Vindication of CHRISTMAS or, His Twelve Yeares' Observations upon the Times (London, 1652),^[16] involved "Old Christmas" advocating a merry, alcoholic Christmas and casting aspersions on the charitable motives of the ruling Puritans. Father Christmas dates back at least as far as the 17th century in Britain,^{[citation needed]} and pictures of him survive from that era, portraying him as a well-nourished bearded man dressed in a long green fur-lined robe. A writer in "Time's Telescope" (1822) states that in Yorkshire at eight o'clock on Christmas Eve the bells greet "Old Father Christmas" with a merry peal, the children parade the streets with drums, trumpets, bells, (or in their absence, with the poker and shovel, taken from their humble cottage fire), the yule candle is lighted, and; "High on the cheerful fire. Is blazing seen th' enormous Christmas brand."^[17] Although originally associated with adult feasting and drinking, since the Victorian era,^[18] Father Christmas has gradually merged with the pre-modern gift giver St Nicholas (Dutch Sinterklaas, hence Santa Claus) and associated folklore. Nowadays he is often called Santa Claus but also often referred to in Britain as Father Christmas: the two names are synonyms. In Europe, Father Christmas/Santa Claus is often said to reside in the mountains of Korvatunturi in Lapland Province, Finland. Traditionally,^[when?] Father Christmas comes down the chimney to put presents under the Christmas tree or in children's rooms, in their stockings. Some families leave a glass of sherry or mulled wine, mince pies, biscuits, or chocolate and a carrot for his reindeer near the stocking(s) as a present for him. In modern homes without chimneys he uses alternative means to enter the home. In some homes children write Christmas lists (of wished-for presents) and send them up the chimney or post them.

Appearance[link]

"Father Christmas" is often synonymous with Santa Claus.

Father Christmas often appears as a large man, often around 70 years old. He is dressed in a red or green suit trimmed with white fur, often girdled with a wide black belt, a matching hat, often long and floppy in nature, and dark boots. Often he carries a large brown sack filled with toys on his back (rarely, images of him have a beard but with no moustache^{[citation needed]}). Urban myth ^[19] has it that the red suit only appeared after the Coca Cola company started an advertising campaign depicting a red suited Father Christmas in the 1930s. However, the company admit that the red suit had appeared before they used the image. In reality, the red-suited Santa was created by Thomas Nast^{[dubious – discuss]}.^[20][21][22]

In fiction[link]

Father Christmas appears in many English-language works of fiction, including Robin Jones Gunn's Father Christmas Series (2007), Catherine Spencer's A Christmas to Remember (2007), Debbie Macomber's There's Something About Christmas (2005), Richard Paul Evans's The Gift (2007), C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe‎ (1950), Raymond Briggs's Father Christmas (1973) and the translation from French of Jean de Brunhoff's Babar and Father Christmas (originally Babar et le père Noël, 1941). J.R.R. Tolkien's The Father Christmas Letters are letters he wrote addressed to his children from Father Christmas.

The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia compares Tolkien's Father Christmas with L. Frank Baum's Santa Claus, as he appears in The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus:

Santa Claus's friends raise an army to save him from monsters called Awgwas. Tolkien's goblins somewhat resemble the Awgwas, who also steal presents. But Baum's Santa does not fight like Tolkien's Father Christmas does.^[23]

C.S. Lewis, a children's author and Christian, preferred the traditional Father Christmas because of his clear connection with the Christian holiday of Christmas.^{[citation needed]}

In music[link]

• In 1976 The Kinks recorded the song "Father Christmas".
• In addition, in 1974, Greg Lake (of Emerson, Lake & Palmer) wrote and recorded the song, "I Believe In Father Christmas", which was released as a single in 1975.
• In their 1997 album Pop, U2 cites Father Christmas in the song "If God Will Send His Angels".

See also[link]

• Christmas gift-bringer
• Christmas worldwide
• The Father Christmas Letters

References[link]

External links[link]

• The History of Santa Claus and Father Christmas

Raymond Redvers Briggs (born 18 January 1934) is an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author, who has achieved critical and popular success among adults and children. He is best known for his story The Snowman, which is shown every Christmas on British television in cartoon form and on the stage as a musical.^[2]

Biography[link]

Raymond Briggs was born in Wimbledon, London, England, to parents Ethel and Ernest Briggs, a lady's maid and a milkman. He attended Rutlish School for Boys (then a grammar school), pursued cartooning from an early age and, despite his father's attempts to discourage him from this unprofitable pursuit, attended the Wimbledon School of Art from 1949 to 1953 to study painting, and Central School of Art to study typography.^[3]

From 1953 to 1955 he was a conscript in the Royal Corps of Signals at Catterick where he was made a draughtsman.^[4] After these two years of National Service, he returned to the study of painting at Slade School of Fine Art at University College, London, graduating in 1957.

After briefly pursuing painting, he became a professional illustrator, and soon began working in children's books. In 1961 he began teaching illustration part-time at Brighton School of Art, which he continued until 1986.^[5][6]

In 1958, he illustrated Peter and the Piskies: Cornish Folk and Fairy Tales, a fairy tale anthology by Ruth Manning-Sanders that was published by Oxford University Press.

His first three major works, Father Christmas (1973), Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975) (both featuring a curmudgeonly Father Christmas who complains incessantly about the "blooming snow"), and Fungus the Bogeyman (1977), were in the form of comics rather than the typical children's-book format of separate text and illustrations. The Snowman (1978) was entirely wordless, and illustrated with only pencil crayons.^[7] Briggs said that it was partly inspired by his previous book, "For two years I worked on Fungus, buried amongst muck, slime and words, so... I wanted to do something which was clean, pleasant, fresh and wordless and quick."^[8] The Snowman became Briggs' best-known work when in 1982 it was made into an Oscar nominated animated cartoon, that has been shown every year since on British television.

Briggs continued to work in a similar format, but with more adult content, in Gentleman Jim (1980), a sombre look at the working class trials of Jim and Hilda Bloggs, closely based on his parents. When the Wind Blows (1982) confronted the trusting, optimistic Bloggs couple with the horror of nuclear war, and was praised in the British House of Commons for its timeliness and originality. The topic was inspired after Briggs watched a Panorama documentary on nuclear contingency planning,^[6] and the dense format of the page was inspired by a Swiss publisher's miniature version of Father Christmas.^[9] This book was turned into a two-handed radio play with Peter Sallis in the male lead role, and subsequently an animated film, featuring John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft.^[10] The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984) was a scathing denunciation of the Falklands War. However, Briggs continued to produce humour for children, in works such as the Unlucky Wally series and The Bear.

In 1993 Briggs was recognized as The Children's Author of the Year by the British Book Awards. His graphic novel Ethel and Ernest, which portrayed his parents' 41-year marriage, won Best Illustrated Book in the 1999 British Book Awards.

His wife Jean, who suffered from schizophrenia, died from leukaemia in 1973, only two years after his parents. They did not have any children.

As of 2008 he lives in a small house in Westmeston in Sussex;^[11] because of the clutter he keeps a separate home from his partner, Liz, her children and grandchildren. He continues to work on writing and illustrating books.^[12]

Selected bibliography[link]

• 1966: Mother Goose Treasury — awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal
• 1969: Shackleton's Epic Voyage
• 1971: Jim and the Beanstalk
• 1973: Father Christmas — awarded a second Kate Greenaway Medal
• 1975: Father Christmas Goes on Holiday ISBN 0-698-30584-1; LoC: 75-2541
• 1977: Fungus the Bogeyman
• 1978: The Snowman US ISBN 0-394-88466-3 (pbk.) 0-394-93973-5 (lib. bdg.)
• 1980: Gentleman Jim
• 1982: When the Wind Blows
• 1984: The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman
• 1986: All in a Day (with Mitsumasa Anno et al.) ISBN 0-399-21311-2
• 1987: Unlucky Wally
• 1989: Unlucky Wally 20 Years On
• 1992: The Man
• 1994: The Bear
• 1998: Ethel and Ernest
• 2001: UG: Boy Genius of the Stone Age ISBN 0-375-81611-9 (trade)-- awarded Nestle Smarties Book Prize award
• 2001: The Adventures of Bert (text by Allan Ahlberg) US ISBN 0-374-30092-5
• 2002: A Bit More Bert (text by Allan Ahlberg) US ISBN 0-374-32489-1
• 2004: The Puddleman ISBN 0-09-945642-1

Adaptations[link]

• The Snowman (1982) VHS ISBN 0-7912-0007-8

(1982) Sony Video Software: 50QS 4011(Betamax)/50ZS 4011(VHS)

(2006) DVD NR, UPC 043396164369, Director Diane Jackson, approx. 29 minutes

• When the Wind Blows (play) (1983) Little Theatre, Bristol and Whitehall Theatre, London.
• When the Wind Blows (1986)
• Father Christmas (1991)
• 1998 DVD NTSC fullscreen ISBN 0-7678-2670-1 UPC 4339603227 combines:

The Snowman (1993) 29 min; and

Father Christmas (1997) 25 min (including material from Father Christmas Goes on Holiday)

• The Bear (1999)
• Ivor the Invisible (2001)
• Fungus the Bogeyman (2004)
• Ethel and Ernest (2008) (still in production)
• Gentleman Jim BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play, 4 May 2008

Awards[link]

Briggs has won numerous awards during his career, including:^[1][8]

• 1966 Kate Greenaway Medal, for The Mother Goose Treasury
• 1973 Kate Greenaway Medal, for Father Christmas
• 1977 Francis Williams Award for Illustration (Victoria and Albert Museum), for Father Christmas
• 1979 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award
• 1979 Silver Pen Award, in Holland
• 1982 Children's Rights Workshop Other Award
• 1982 Francis Williams Award for Illustration (Victoria and Albert Museum), for The Snowman
• 1992 Kurt Maschler Award, for The Man
• 1992 Children’s Author of the Year, British Book Awards
• 1998 Illustrated Book of the Year, British Book Awards, for Ethel and Ernest
• 2001 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize Silver Award, for Ug

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Anita Silvey (editor), The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators, ISBN 0-618-19082-1
• Baker, Barbara (2006). The Way We Write. London: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-9122-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=-Gfk8LSMIFwC&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25. 
• D. Martin, 'Raymond Briggs', in The Telling Line (1989), p.227-242

External links[link]

• Raymond Briggs at the Internet Movie Database
• Raymond Briggs at Contemporary Writers
• Raymond Briggs at the Internet Book List
• Listen to a radio interview with Raymond Briggs on Resonance FM, 9 January 2009