Father Christmas Goes on Holiday

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Duffy, Eamon (1992). The Stripping of the Altars. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 581–582. ISBN 0-300-06076-9. Alberge, Dalya (14 December 2019). "First letter to Father Christmas discovered from girl requesting paints in 1895". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.

Barnett, Laura (16 December 2014). "How I made: Raymond Briggs on Father Christmas". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 August 2022. Raymond Briggs: ‘I’m not a fan of Christmas. It’s all a great fuss about nothing.’ Photograph: Felix Clay/for the Guardian Father Christmas presents a dramatically different modern interpretation of the character. He may physically resemble a stereotypical vision of a jolly Father Christmas, with his large white beard and red suit, but he couldn’t be more different. This Father Christmas is a down-to-earth working man living in a normal house, with the usual tasks of his delivery on Christmas Eve, who hides his warm heart behind a grumpy, dissatisfied exterior. There is no sign of either Mrs. Claus (apart from a hanging wall picture in one scene) or the elves in this apparently solo operation. Living with him are his cat and dog, and two reindeer. While he bumbles and mumbles about his work and life, it is clear he has a deep affection for his animals (he gives his cat and dog presents) and enjoys his work. He comes across as complaining about everything but ultimately loving what he does. Robertshaw, Ursula (2 December 1985). "The Christmas Gift Bringer". Illustrated London News (1985 Christmas Number): np. Father Christmas needs a well deserved break and after industrially converting his sleigh into a camper van, sets off with his deer to France to enjoy the wine, food and sun. But be is soon recognised as Father Christmas and moves onto Scotland. But it's too cold and again risking being recognised he goes to Las Vegas in search of more sun before heading home.Fox, Berkley (2008). Brett, RL (ed.). Barclay Fox's Journal 1832 - 1854. Cornwall Editions Limited. p.297. ISBN 978-1904880318. Some of the entries were first published under the title Barclay Fox's Journal, edited by RL Brett, Bell and Hyman, London 1979. Father Christmas is a British children's picture book written and drawn by Raymond Briggs and published by Hamish Hamilton in 1973. Briggs won the annual Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. [2] For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005), a panel named it one of the top ten winning works, which composed the ballot for a public election of the nation's favourite. [3] Overview [ edit ]

Our Christmas Corner. The Editor's Dream". Cheltenham Chronicle. Cheltenham. 24 December 1867. p.8. For modern usages in which Father Christmas is treated as synonymous with Santa Claus, see Santa Claus. In this brilliant funny sequel from Raymond Briggs, author of The Snowman, a still rather grumpy Father Christmas decides to go on holiday. Of course, no-one needs a holiday more than Father Christmas . . . but where can such a well-known and easily recognized person go? The popular American myth of Santa Claus arrived in England in the 1850s and Father Christmas started to take on Santa's attributes. By the 1880s the new customs had become established, with the nocturnal visitor sometimes being known as Santa Claus and sometimes as Father Christmas. He was often illustrated wearing a long red hooded gown trimmed with white fur. Giving Christmas his Due". 23 December 2011. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016 . Retrieved 15 January 2016.a b Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Steve (2000). A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 62. ISBN 0-19-969104-5. Scott's phrase Merry England has been adopted by historians to describe the romantic notion that there was a Golden Age of the English past, allegedly since lost, that was characterised by universal hospitality and charity. The notion had a profound influence on the way that popular customs were seen, and most of the 19th century writers who bemoaned the state of contemporary Christmases were, at least to some extent, yearning for the mythical Merry England version. [40] A Merry England vision of Old Christmas 1836 Nashe, Thomas (1600). Summer's Last Will and Testament. Archived from the original on 12 January 2016 . Retrieved 12 January 2016. New Year's Day". John o' Groat Journal. Caithness, Scotland. 9 January 1852. p.3 . Retrieved 28 January 2016. England was merry England, when / Old Christmas brought his sports again. 'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightiest ale; / 'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer / The poor man's heart through half the year." [39]

a b c d e f g h i j Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Stations of the Sun. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 117–118. ISBN 0-19-820570-8. The story focuses on a stereotypical vision of Father Christmas with a down-to-earth twist, living in contemporary Britain with his pets and reindeer, coping with everyday domestic chores, who recounts to the viewers about a holiday he took before preparing for another Christmas. [1]As interest in Christmas customs waned, Father Christmas's profile declined. [1] He still continued to be regarded as Christmas's presiding spirit, although his occasional earlier associations with the Lord of Misrule died out with the disappearance of the Lord of Misrule himself. [1] The historian Ronald Hutton notes, "after a taste of genuine misrule during the Interregnum nobody in the ruling elite seems to have had any stomach for simulating it." [27] Hutton also found "patterns of entertainment at late Stuart Christmases are remarkably timeless [and] nothing very much seems to have altered during the next century either." [27] The diaries of 18th and early 19th century clergy take little note of any Christmas traditions. [24] a b Hutton, Ronald (1994). The Rise and Fall of Merry England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 55. Nabbes, Thomas (1887). Bullen, AH (ed.). Old English Plays: The Works of Thomas Nabbes, volume the second. London: Wyman & Sons. pp. 228–229. Father Christmas". Chambers 21st Century Dictionary. Chambers. Archived from the original on 12 January 2018 . Retrieved 12 January 2018.

The rise of puritanism led to accusations of popery in connection with pre- reformation Christmas traditions. [3] When the Puritans took control of government in the mid-1640s they made concerted efforts to abolish Christmas and to outlaw its traditional customs. [15] For 15 years from around 1644, before and during the Interregnum of 1649-1660, the celebration of Christmas in England was forbidden. [15] The suppression was given greater legal weight from June 1647 when parliament passed an Ordinance for Abolishing of Festivals [16] which formally abolished Christmas in its entirety, along with the other traditional church festivals of Easter and Whitsun. [10] Raymond Briggs, creator of The Snowman, introduces us to a rather grumpy Father Christmas in this brilliantly tongue-in-cheek festive tale. a b Hutton, Ronald (1994). The Rise and Fall of Merry England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 242–243.

Sometimes the two characters continued to be presented as separate, as in a procession at the Olympia Exhibition of 1888 in which both Father Christmas and Santa Claus took part, with Little Red Riding Hood and other children's characters in between. [75] At other times the characters were conflated: in 1885 Mr Williamson's London Bazaar in Sunderland was reported to be a "Temple of juvenile delectation and delight. In the well-lighted window is a representation of Father Christmas, with the printed intimation that 'Santa Claus is arranging within.'" [76] Domestic Theatricals 1881