Expand: date=December 2008

Father Christmas is the name used in many English speaking countries for Christmas. A similar figure with the same name (in other languages) exists in several other countries, including France (Papa ) Spain (Papá Noel), Portugal (Pai Natal), Italy (Babbo Natale) and Romania (Moş Crăciun). In past centuries, the English Father Christmas was also known as Old Father Christmas, Sir Christmas, and Lord Christmas. Father Christmas is said to reside in Lapland Province, Finland, sometimes in the mountains of Korvatunturi.

Father Christmas typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, was neither a gift bringer, nor associated with children. The pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history namely Saint Nicholas, Dutch Sinterklaas and folklore merged with the British character Father Christmas to create the character known to Britons and Americans as Santa Claus.

In the English-speaking world, the character called "Father Christmas" influenced the development in the United States of Santa Claus, 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. Some non-Americans, such as the authors C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, have insisted on the traditional form of Father Christmas in preference to Santa Claus.

History

The symbolic personification of Christmas as a merry old figure begins in the early 17th century, in the context of resistance to Puritan criticism of observation of the Christmas feast. 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. Allegory was popular at the time, and so "old Christmas" was given a voice to protest his exclusion, along with the form of a rambunctious, jolly old man.

The earliest recorded personification of Christmas appears to be Ben Jonson's creation in Christmas his Masque 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".