by Grace, age 9 from Richmond, asks Father Christmas about his English roots and his link to Charles Dickens.
A Letter to Father Christmas from Grace in Richmond, Virginia
Dear Father Christmas, my name is Grace and I am nine years old. I live in Richmond, Virginia, and my teacher said you and Santa used to be different people, so I have a lot of questions:
- Are you considered British, while Santa is American?
- Are you more about celebrating Jesus’s birth than just giving toys?
- Are you the original Santa from England before the American version existed?
- Did Charles Dickens write about you in his book A Christmas Carol?
- Did you and Santa Claus used to be two completely different people?
- Did you use to wear a green robe instead of red a long time ago?
- Do you come on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning?
- Do you have reindeer, or do you walk from house to house?
- Do you look exactly the same as Santa now, or is there a difference?
- Why did you and Santa Claus eventually become the same person?
- Geography: What is the capital city of England?
- Social Studies: What old English midwinter tradition did Father Christmas originally come from?
Love, Grace
Father Christmas Writes Back
Are you considered British, while Santa is American?
In a way, yes. I grew out of old English midwinter traditions long before Santa Claus took shape in America, so many people think of me as Britain’s own version of the character, even though we look nearly identical today.
Are you more about celebrating Jesus’s birth than just giving toys?
Originally, yes. My earliest stories were less about presents and more about good cheer, feasting, and celebrating the Christmas season itself, including its Christian meaning, rather than filling stockings.
Are you the original Santa from England before the American version existed?
That is a fair way to put it, Grace. English Father Christmas traditions go back for centuries, and when English and Dutch settlers brought their winter folklore to America, it eventually blended together into the Santa Claus you know today.
Did Charles Dickens write about you in his book A Christmas Carol?
Charles Dickens did include a character called the Ghost of Christmas Present in his story A Christmas Carol, a large, jolly, fur robed figure who helped popularize the image of a generous, merry spirit of the season, closely tied to my own story.
Did you and Santa Claus used to be two completely different people?
For a long time, yes. Father Christmas was mostly about merrymaking and goodwill, while Saint Nicholas and later the American Santa Claus were more focused on gift giving. Over the 1800s and 1900s, the two traditions slowly merged into one character.
Did you use to wear a green robe instead of red a long time ago?
I did indeed. Many older pictures of me show a long green, fur trimmed robe, tied to old English winter and holly traditions, long before red became the standard color.
Do you come on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning?
Christmas Eve night is when I make my rounds, so children wake up to find their gifts waiting Christmas morning.
Do you have reindeer, or do you walk from house to house?
These days I use a sleigh and reindeer, same as the modern Santa Claus, though in my oldest stories I mostly just appeared, without any particular explanation of how I traveled.
Do you look exactly the same as Santa now, or is there a difference?
Almost exactly the same these days, red suit, white beard, and a jolly laugh, since the two traditions have blended together so thoroughly over the last century.
Why did you and Santa Claus eventually become the same person?
Popular books, greeting cards, and eventually movies and advertising in the 1800s and 1900s spread images of Santa Claus and Father Christmas back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean so often that people simply started picturing us as one and the same.
Geography: What is the capital city of England?
London is the capital of England, and many of the oldest written records of Father Christmas traditions come from English towns and villages nearby.
Social Studies: What old English midwinter tradition did Father Christmas originally come from?
Long before gift giving was the focus, English communities celebrated an old midwinter tradition called Yule, filled with feasting, singing, and driving away the dark of winter with light and cheer. Father Christmas grew out of that older tradition of welcoming the season itself, and gift giving was added to my story much later.
