Father Christmas Goes on Holiday

Product Information

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 ] The Cave of Mystery". Illustrated London News: 607. 22 December 1866. The image was republished in the United States a year later in Godey's Ladies Book, December 1867, under the title 'Old Father Christmas'.

a b Hutton, Ronald (1994). The Rise and Fall of Merry England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 242–243. Briggs completed a sequel, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday, published in 1975 by Hamish Hamilton in Britain and Coward, McCann & Geoghan in America. [6]

Reviews

As the US-inspired customs became popular in England, Father Christmas started to take on Santa's attributes. [1] His costume became more standardised, and although depictions often still showed him carrying holly, the holly crown became rarer and was often replaced with a hood. [1] [9] It still remained common, though, for Father Christmas and Santa Claus to be distinguished, and as late as the 1890s there were still examples of the old-style Father Christmas appearing without any of the new American features. [69] Appearances in public [ edit ] It was the amusing and simple artistry that saved this for me (what would have been a 3 star became a 4). Briggs always seems to offset his dreary characters and story lines with his delightful illustrations that add both humour and humanity; something that would otherwise be completely lost in the simple telling of the tale.

a b Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Steve (2000). A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 402. ISBN 0-19-969104-5. In 1658 Josiah King published The Examination and Tryall of Old Father Christmas (the earliest citation for the specific term 'Father Christmas' recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary). [21] King portrays Father Christmas as a white-haired old man who is on trial for his life based on evidence laid against him by the Commonwealth. Father Christmas's counsel mounts the defence: "Me thinks my Lord, the very Clouds blush, to see this old Gentleman thus egregiously abused. if at any time any have abused themselves by immoderate eating, and drinking or otherwise spoil the creatures, it is none of this old mans fault; neither ought he to suffer for it; for example the Sun and the Moon are by the heathens worship’d are they therefore bad because idolized? so if any abuse this old man, they are bad for abusing him, not he bad, for being abused." The jury acquits. [22] [23] Restoration [ edit ]

a b c d e f Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Steve (2000). A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 119–120. ISBN 0-19-969104-5. Hervey ends by lamenting the lost "uproarious merriment" of Christmas, and calls on his readers "who know anything of the 'old, old, very old, gray-bearded gentleman' or his family to aid us in our search after them; and with their good help we will endeavor to restore them to some portion of their ancient honors in England". [44] Nabbes, Thomas (1887). Bullen, AH (ed.). Old English Plays: The Works of Thomas Nabbes, volume the second. London: Wyman & Sons. pp. 228–229. The book's title character and protagonist, who lives in an ordinary house in what appears to be a provincial English town, decides that he needs to take a vacation. He travels to France, Scotland and Las Vegas, Nevada. He finds that each destination has its advantages and disadvantages. Father Christmas [1] is keen to blend in wherever he goes and to pass incognito. He leaves each of his three vacation destinations shortly after a child recognizes him.