Is Father Christmas Russian?

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (1843) describes the Ghost of Christmas as a jolly bearded figure clad in a fur-lined green robe (fertility spirit), maybe following the poem by the American Clement Clarke “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” (1822) where Saint Nicholas is referred to as having “the beard on his chin…white as snow”. The marketing of this version of Father Christmas, the Pagan Green-clad Fertility Spirit transformed into the Russian Winter Spirit, continued with Thomas Nash’s montage in 1866 in Harper’s Illustrated Weekly (USA), placing Santa Claus as a toy maker, based on the Clement Clarke poem. Coca Cola launched an advertising campaign in the 1930s inspired on these drawings.

We wish you a Merry Christmas as you sing Noel, Noel…which comes from the French les bonnes nouvelles (the good news, the Gospel).

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

Lisa KARPOVA

PRAVDA.Ru