ST Nicholas and Father Christmas: J.C. BAUDOT - Museologist, Museologist, Writer and Collector

ST NICHOLAS AND FATHER CHRISTMAS
J.C. BAUDOT - Museologist, Museologist, Writer and Collector,

12, passage Bourgoin, 75013 Paris
Tel. (33) 01 45 82 20 81
The peaceful co-existence of St Nicholas and Father Christmas, at first sight of little consequence, is
in fact worthy of note when one considers the huge volume of presents, and in particular toys,
delivered by these two extraordinary personages each year in the space of a few days. Their
economic impact is considerable and the power they wield over a childs imagination, far greater than
that exercised by Mickey Mouse, Batman and company, never ceases to increase.
In addition to games, toys and old dolls, I have collected over the past 30 years more than 1500
representations of Father Christmas. I have also written his "memoirs", seeking to understand why he
is called Santa Claus in the United States, Father Christmas in England, Christkindl in Alsace,
Jultomte in Sweden, and so on. In short, I have conducted an outlandish and totally absorbing enquiry
culminating in a virtually "historical" re-creation of the genealogical tree common to our two heroes, St
Nicholas and Father Christmas.
The first research worthy of the name into this question was carried out in the 1950s by Van Gennep,
working within a folklore laboratory attached to the CNRS (National Scientific Research Centre). This
work was taken up, expanded and published by Catherine Lepagnol in her book Biographies du Pre
Nol (Hachette, 1979).
I shall try to present a simplified, abridged version of these studies by sketching the history of the
ancestors of the most widely travelled, the best loved and most famous of our grandfathers!
Pagan Ancestors
Our modern bearer of gifts comes down to us quite naturally (sic) from the benefactor gods of pagan
mythologies. Some claim to have found traces of his origins in Shamanistic traditions dating back to
7000 or 8000 BC. However that may be, it is quite clear that the oldest identifiable forebear is none
other than the god Odin who was "active" in Nordic countries (present-day Scandinavia) in the second
millennium before the birth of Christ: majestically ensconced on his celestial throne, surrounded by
Geri and Freki, his two tame wolves, he periodically dispatched his two black ravens, Huginn and
Muninn, to show him which children had been good. During the Yuletide feasts of the winter solstice
(December 21st) they descended to earth riding his eight-legged steed and distributed gifts to these
children. This god was also worshipped in Germania under the name of Wotan.
Some researchers believe that Gargan, son of the Celtic god Bel, the gigantic bon viveur better known
as Gargantua, was also a bearer of gifts but proof is lacking. By a strange coincidence, it so happens
that St Nicholass body lies on Mount Gargano in Italy and we find references to him, linked to Wotan,
in German mythology.
In the steppes of ancient Russia, the harvest god Mikoula, a ploughman imbued with magical powers,
was capable of wielding his wooden plough with one hand while a hundred other ploughmen were
incapable of moving it. During the winter solstice he abandoned his plough to distribute gifts to
children.
The French word for the traditional "Christmas Box" is trennes, but few French people know the
etymological origin of this word. It comes from the goddess Strenia who was venerated in Rome
between the 5th century BC and the 4th century AD. She did not herself distribute presents, but in her
honour throughout the Saturnalia (roughly speaking from 17th to 24th December) Roman patricians
exchanged small gifts (sweets and honey) as well as jewels or gold objects.
Christian Ancestors
After the birth of Christ, the Church, unable to stamp out the deeply-ingrained beliefs of the populace,
tried instead to assimilate them in the Christian religion: churches were raised on the site of old pagan
temples and many saints took the place of the "defunct" specialised gods.
Among the numerous gift-bearing saints, such as St Barbara in Austria, St Catherine in Catalonia, St
Martin, St Lucy, St Thomas, etc., St Nicholas very quickly reached an international audience. This 4th
century bishop became the patron saint of children in Holland, Belgium, Germany, Russia, virtually all
of eastern Europe, and northern and eastern France.
Let us stop for a moment to consider the true story of St Nicholas. He was a person of consequence,
known throughout the Mediterranean basin. Born in Lycia (now Turkey), he did not meet a martyrs
death but travelled widely and enjoyed a reputation as a worker of miracles. Legend has it that he
brought back to life three children who had been drawn and quartered and placed in a salting tub by a
wicked butcher. Not so! St Nicholas did indeed help and save three youths, though from drowning and
not from the butcher (that is why he is also the patron saint of sailors, and also incidentally of
numerous guilds, including shopkeepers!). But in actual fact his "gift-bearing function" comes from
another act which was more of a good deed than a miracle: one of his friends, a member of the lesser
nobility, had three daughters to marry off. The impoverished father was unable to provide them with a
dowry and the girls were on the verge of prostituting themselves when St Nicholas intervened and
gave each of them a purse full of gold. From this moment on, St Nicholass generosity knew no
bounds.
"Fantasy" Ancestors
But alongside this religious "invasion" (not forgetting the Magi), a plethora of magical personages, also
bearers of gifts, began to take root in the countryside: Frau Holle in Germany, Tante Arie in FrancheComt and the Swiss cantons of Vaud and Neuchtel, Berchta in Bavaria and the Tyrol, Befana in
Italy, Olenzaro in the Basque Country, to name but a few.
Such figures were accompanied by witches, bogeymen, monsters, werewolves, ogres and ogresses of
every description, all calculated to inculcate fear of the supernatural.
In actual fact, however, these figures were awaited with as much veneration as dread, for potentially
they possessed as much beneficial as evil power.
"Then, in the space of a hundred years, these benefactors, variously deemed too papist, too religious
or too magical, gradually faded out of Europe. Saints, virgins, fairies, ogres, devils and witches who
had risen from the deep recesses of history to haunt the childhood of our ancestors, returned to the
shadows, leaving the way clear for a single offspring... Father Christmas." (Catherine Lepagnol).
The Birth of Santa Claus in America

This transformation, startling and swift, started in New York in 1822. In that year, a pastor, Clement
Clarke Moore, wrote a poem for his children called A Visit from Saint Nicholas, more commonly known
as The Night Before Christmas. In the poem, the Holy Bisschop from Myra in Asia Minor shed his
Episcopal appearance and attributes (mitre, crozier) and was transformed into a jolly and plump old elf
with a red nose and a white beard.
Published the following year, the poem had a considerable impact, meeting as it did the need to merge
into a single image all the different figures co-existing in 19th century America, in particular the
Weinachtmann of the German communities, the Santa Nikolaaus of Dutch folk and the Christkindl of
immigrants from Alsace and German-speaking Switzerland.
The poem was all the more powerful for the fact that Clement Moore had overlooked none of the
aspects accompanying the gift-givers of legend: night, snow, chimney, shoes or stockings, the sack or
large bag of toys.
The new-look Father Christmas had arrived with a vengeance. Baptised Santa Claus (an abbreviated
form of Santa Nikolaaus), he arrived in Europe via the Netherlands and began to provide the original
St Nicholas with increasingly stiff competition. He met with the approval of both Protestants and
laymen: the feast could free itself of the religious stranglehold. In the wake of the Second World War
and the Marshall Plan and with the advent of department stores and the consumer society, the
American-style Father Christmas invaded Europe. Nothing could stop his irresistible rise - not the
clergy burning his effigy in Dijon in 1951, nor the Secretary-General of the United Nations who reviled
him in the same year, nor the Governor of San Sebastin who expelled him from the town in 1952.
The King Child

It has to be said that the Christmas present is filled with mystery. During the truce of Christmas, the
child is king, imposing its law ("I want") by letter, prayer or command. It is up to the adult to see that
the child gets what it wants, claiming in return, through the intermediary of Father Christmas,
goodness and obedience.
How can we explain the magic of this moment? Why is it charged with such intense emotion? LeviStrauss provides a masterly answer: "the present is not delivered from hand to hand, but deposited
and found so that there is always a breaking of the act of giving."
This breaking or fracture allows the child to dream of the mysterious, even celestial origin of the
parcel. The child is supposed to partake in a supernatural experience. It is filled with wonder and we in
turn marvel at its wonder.
In fact, this supernatural and unchanging being, eternally set in its from, defined by an exclusive
function (giving) and by a periodic return, belongs more to the family of divinities. The only difference
between Father Christmas and a true divinity is that grown-ups do not believe in him.
By way of conclusion, I would just add that, as it happens, I am looking for a grown-up manufacturer or
elected representative who has sufficient faith in Father Christmas and his powers - particularly his
media and magical powers - to dedicate a real museum to him!
Reproduced by kind permission of the author.
From "Le Pre Nol par le Pre Nol"de Jean-Claude Baudot (Glnat, 1992).

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ST NICHOLAS AND FATHER CHRISTMAS

J.C. BAUDOT - Museologist, Museologist, Writer and Collector,

The Birth of Santa Claus in America

The King Child

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