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The name Santa Claus is used in many English-speaking countries and is given to a particular figure associated with Christmas. However, while the names Santa Claus and Father Christmas are often interchanged theyare actually based in different people from different cultures!
Who is Father Christmas?
The Father Christmas character often appears as a large man, in his 70's with a full white beard and moustache. 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.
He is often depicted carrying a large brown sack filled with toys on his back. Urban myth 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, some believed the red suit had appeared before they used the image - a creation of the cartoon artist Thomas Nast for Harper's Illustrated Weekley.
During Victorian and Tudor times, Father Christmas's bright green suit typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, but was neither a gift bringer nor particularly associated with children.
A traditional figure in English folklore, Father Christmas is identified with the old belief in the Old English god Woden.
Woden was the chief god of the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and leader of the Wild Hunt.
Who is Santa Claus?
The modern Santa Claus is for all intents and purposes based on the real person - Saint Nicholas of Myra. He is the primary inspiration for the Christian figure of Sinterklaas - perhaps better known in English speaking countries as Santa Claus - a name - as mentioned previously - interchangeable with the Father Christmas character
He was a 4th century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now Demre) in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that they would not have to become prostitutes.
He was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity. In continental Europe (more precisely the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Germany) he is usually portrayed as a bearded bishop in canonical robes.
In 1087, the Italian city of Bari, wanting to enter the profitable pilgrimage industry of the times, mounted an expedition to locate the tomb of the Christian Saint and procure his remains. The reliquary of St. Nicholas was desecrated by Italian sailors and the spoils, including his relics, taken to Bari where they are kept to this day. A basilica was constructed the same year to store the loot and the area became a pilgrimage site for the devout, thus justifying the economic cost of the expedition.
Saint Nicholas was later claimed as a patron saint of many diverse groups, from archers, sailors, and children to pawnbrokers. He is also the patron saint of both Amsterdam and Moscow.
There are a number of stories that are accosiated with St. Nicholas which go some way to explain his popularity today.
One legend tells of a terrible famine and a malicious butcher who lured three little children into his house. He slaughtered and butchered them, placing their remains in a barrel to cure, and planned to sell them off as ham. Saint Nicholas, visiting the region to care for the hungry, not only saw through the butcher's horrific crime but also resurrected the three boys from the barrel by his prayers.
Another version of this story, possibly formed around the eleventh century, claims that the butcher's victims were instead three clerks who wished to stay the night. The man murdered them, and was advised by his wife to dispose of them by turning them into meat pies. The Saint saw through this and brought the men back to life.
In his most famous exploit, a poor man had three daughters but could not afford a proper dowry for them. This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment, would have to become prostitutes. Hearing of the poor man's plight, Nicholas decided to help him, but being too modest to help the man in public - or to save the man the humiliation of accepting charity - he went to his house under the cover of night and threw three purses - one for each daughter - filled with gold coins through the window opening into the man's house.
One version has him throwing one purse for three consecutive nights. Another has him throwing the purses over a period of three years, each time the night before one of the daughters comes of age. Invariably, the third time the father lies in wait, trying to discover the identity of their benefactor.
In one version the father confronts the saint, only to have Saint Nicholas say it is not him he should thank, but God alone. In another version, Nicholas learns of the poor man's plan and drops the third bag down the chimney instead; a variant holds that the daughter had washed her stockings that evening and hung them over the embers to dry, and that the bag of gold fell into the stocking.
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Based on an article from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Christmas
Images care of http://www.cleomede.com/categorie-415819.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boyana_Angel.jpg and http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/medieval-glass-2/ and http://www.zazzle.co.uk/two_legends_of_st_nicholas_postcard-239542045124679513