he authors C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien both portray “Father Christmas” in their respective fictional works. But who was Father Christmas and why does he play such a prominent role in the creative endeavors of Lewis and Tolkien? Like many mythic figures, Father Christmas has changed a bit over time, as new generations interpreted the old stories.

Our current depiction of Santa Claus is partly the creation of advertising agencies. However, the original Father Christmas of the 17th century wore green, not red, and his beard was not “snow white.” His reindeer hail from Scandanivian myth while his elves are of Germanic descent. The story of Father’s Christmas’s home at the North Pole is from the old belief that he lives in Finland. The practice of leaving baked goods for this welcome visitor derives from pagan ritual of leaving offerings and sacrifices to the gods. Saint Nicholas, another name for Father Christmas, was a third century saint. Saint Nicholas, according to legend, gave gold so a poor man could marry off his daughters. There are variations of this tale (some quite gruesome), but Saint Nicholas’s generosity soon became transformed into legend.

According to the article ‘History of Santa Clause & Father Christmas,’ Jesus’s birth most likely did not take place in December, yet Pope Julius the First decided that December 25th would officially be the birth of Jesus:

“He wanted to popularise Christianity and so appropriated existing pagan practises as everyone from the Romans to the Babylonians celebrated the beginning of the end of winter. This is perhaps why early representations of Father Christmas saw him dressed in green, representing the green shoots of spring in the depths of winter.”

The Victorians made changes to Father Christmas, making him a figure of “merry-making” and gift giving. In some ancient tales, Father Christmas was seen announcing the birth of Christ and encouraging others to celebrate by drinking. The Victorians revived this portrait of Father Christmas, especially after the Puritans, feeling that Father Christmas was a threat to the sacred origins of the holiday, attempted to abolish the great myth. In Dickens’s timeless classic A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Present is meant to represent Father Christmas. In his portraiture, Father Christmas is described as wearing a green robe surrounded by “plenty” and holly wreaths:

Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easy state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty’s horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge, as he came peeping round the door.

Dickens’s use of Father Christmas depicts him as an icon of celebration:

It was clothed in one simple green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.

ewis and Tolkien used these same images in their own works to entertain and inspire children. It is important to note that many writers read Dickens and were exposed to the “commercialized” versions of Father Christmas/Santa Clause. Retailers then, as now, used images of Father Christmas to persuade citizens to purchase gifts for the season. His image was soon usurped by companies to sell products. Lewis particularly wanted to restore the old traditional perspective of “Father Christmas,” the one in which a generous and jolly man encourages people to celebrate together the importance of Christ’s birth.

Lewis, of course, inserts Father Christmas into The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Father Christmas actually gifts the Pevensie children with presents which will not only protect Narnia but infuse the children with confidence. They are gifts with a special purpose.

In the chapter “The Spell Begins to Break”, the Pevensie children are traveling with the Beavers when they encounter “a huge man in a bright red robe (bright as hollyberries) with a hood that had fur inside it and a great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest.” Lewis continues that, “Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.” Father Christmas admits that the White Witch had kept him out of Narnia, but her powers were weakened by Aslan.

Father Christmas begins by giving Mrs. Beaver a new sewing machine and mending Mr. Beaver’s dam. As he faces the children, he states that his gifts are “tools, not toys.” Peter receives a shield and sword bearing a red lion on it. Peter is quietly grateful for his present, “for he felt they were a very serious kind of present.” Next, he gives Susan a bow with a quiver full of arrows, as well as a little ivory horn to summon help in desperate trouble. Finally, Lucy receives a glass cordial or restorative potion and a dagger to defend herself. After distributing his gifts, Father Christmas pulls out a large tray with cups and saucers, a “bowl of sugar, a jug of cream, and a great big teapot all sizzling and piping hot.” Before he leaves, he declares, “Merry Christmas! Long love the true King!” and exits on his sleigh.

urprisingly, J. R. R. Tolkien disapproved of Father Christmas’s appearance in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Tolkien was not impressed with Lewis’s blend of mythologies in The Chronicles of Narnia. Tolkien was, as illustrated by his Legendarium, a bit of a purist when it came to mythologies. While Tolkien was influenced by Norse mythologies and the Greek myths, Tolkien preferred to write his own mythology. He thought that Lewis shouldn’t have interfered with his original story by inserting bits of other tales directly into the story. Father Christmas in Narnia? And Bacchus? What a mesh of mythologies. Tolkien enjoyed the influence of other great tales, but the tacit influence, not a direct association mentioned within the story, was fundamental.

Tolkien took a more personal approach to Father Christmas, writing letters from “Father Christmas” to his children each year between the years of 1920-1943. These letters were addressed to Tolkien’s children outlining the perils of preparing for Christmas Eve. His children always delighted in them, and later they were published for the public to enjoy.

Tolkien, being the father of four, also retained that the holiday was more about religious significance. As a devout Catholic, Tolkien felt the religious imagery was of paramount importance. However, Tolkien chose to focus on some of the lighter rituals. Tolkien is often noted for the letters he wrote for his children titled Letters from Father Christmas. In these letters, Tolkien takes on the role of Santa and writes to the Tolkien children every year. The first one, addressed to John Tolkien, is short and yet still enchanting:

“Dear John, I heard you ask daddy what I was like and where I lived. I have drawn me and my house for you. Take care of the picture. I am just off now for Oxford with my bundle of toys – some for you. Hope I shall arrive in time: the snow is very thick at the North Pole tonight. Your loving Father Christmas.”

Tolkien usually accompanied his letters with illustrations of a long-bearded gentleman in a red coat and hood with a large sack thrown across his back. In a few letters, he signs the letters as “Nicolas Christmas” instead of Father Christmas. In 1925, there was an appearance of a large polar bear who began to also write to the children. “Excuse thick writing,” Great (Polar) Bear proclaims, “I have a fat paw.” Polar Bear or North Polar Bear usually attached a note to Father’s Christmas’s letters, sometimes as a postscript, sometimes interrupting Father Christmas’s letters by interjecting a protest or defense. Father Christmas and Polar Bear seemed to have a cheerful if slightly adversarial relationship. For example, in the 1931 letter addressed to the “dear Children,” Father Christmas states that Polar Bear “has been lazy and sleepy...and very slow over packing, or any job except eating. He has enjoyed sampling and tasting the food parcels this year (to see if they were fresh and good, he said).” To this statement, Polar Bear interrupts with “Somebody haz to - and I found stones in some of the kurrants.”. The letters range in topics from the weather at the North Pole, the raising of a Christmas tree, to a goblin invasion.

n both Letters from Father Christmas and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Father Christmas is wearing a signature red outfit, is accompanied by reindeer, and is preparing to distribute gifts (in Lewis’s case, he distributes them). He also has a long beard, is himself jolly, and delights in children. Lewis’s Father Christmas seemed to harken back to the “green” Father Christmas, like Dickens’s depiction, who symbolizes the “green sprouts.” This is significant because Father Christmas’s entrance represents a great thaw in Narnia, as Aslan begins to overturn the White Witch’s rule.

As a holiday, both men enjoyed the traditional camaraderie of the season, however, both men preferred the sacred significance to the secular alternative.

Lewis makes it clear that the commercial holiday of Christmas is a deterrent from the real sacred reason to celebrate. In a letter to correspondent Mrs. Johnson, Lewis writes on December 19, 1952: “I hope I am not a Scrooge, but with every year that passes I find myself more and more in revolt against the commercialized racket of ‘Xmas’...If I seem a little peevish about the whole spiritual atmosphere, it is perhaps because the material one is so disagreeable.” Similarly, he writes to Vera Mathews on October 31, 1949:

I couldn't agree with you more about the commercial rush of “Xmas” as distinct both from the Christian festival of Christmas and the old Germanic feast of Yule. This idiotic exchange of cards which have nothing to do with the Nativity by people who care nothing about Our Lord—this maddening interchange of presents which no one wants to receive-the monstrous annual campaign of advertisements with the venal geniality-the aching feet of the shopper and shop-girl, the waste of the world’s wealth in producing all this rubbish for gadgets and “novelties”-faugh! Giving toys to children and food to the hungry is very well: but two grown-ups exchange a patent cigarette lighter (a dozen boxes of matches wd. be far more use) against a patent calendar (that doesn’t work) seems to me abysmal.

Lewis expressed his disgust for the “racket” of Christmas—two are gathered in his essay collection God in the Dock. ‘What Christmas Means to Me’ is a diatribe about how Christmas’s main custom has now been hijacked by secular commercialization. Instead of spending the day in spiritual contemplation and holy communion, people scatter among the city looking for fitting gifts for their friends, family, and neighbors.

The spirit of giving is thus replaced by the spirit of obligation. The present-buying and present-giving becomes more of a task than a joy. Lewis makes it abundantly clear what he thinks about the commercial aspects of Christmas. He writes, “...I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business.”

In a piece titled ‘Xmas and Christmas’ Lewis crafts a fictional take on Christmas through the guise of the fictional species of Niatirbians. Lewis mythologizes the “Christmas Rush,” portraying it as a bother to those who must adhere to the commercial aspects of the holiday:

But having bought as many as they suppose to be sufficient, they return to their house and find there the like cards which others have sent to them. And when they find cards from any to whom they also have sent cards, they throw them away and give thanks to the gods that this labour at least is over for another year. But when they find cards from any to whom they have not sent, then they beat their breasts and wail and utter curses against the sender; and, having sufficiently lamented their misfortune, they put on their boots again and go out into the fog and rain and buy a card for him also.

In contrast to the Niatirbians, the spiritual citizens place emphasis on the religious meanings of the holiday: “And those who keep Crissmas, doing the opposite to the majority of the Niatirbians, rise early on that day with shining faces and go before sunrise to certain temples where they partake of a sacred feast. And In most of the temples they set out images of a fair woman with a new-born Child on her knees...” The spiritual beings celebrate the day among friends and family with peace and tranquility. The Niatirbians, meanwhile, suffer from utter exhaustion from running around to distribute gifts; Lewis writes that there is no merriment left, “for Xmas and the Rush distract the minds even of the few from sacred things.”

At times, Lewis can barely contain his disgust at the substitution of the sacred for the secular. In a letter to Alastair Fowler on December 11, 1962, Lewis writes, “I have a non-aggression pact about Christmas Boxes with all my real friends. Leave that to relations! St. Augustine, by the way, said that Christmas presents were ‘diabolical’!” Some may read these excerpts and assume that Lewis was opposed to traditional Christmas practices. Lewis did enjoy spending time with dear friends and the proper celebration of the birth of Christ. For Lewis, the commercial rituals dwarfed the religious importance.

lthough he does not bring it up frequently, Tolkien writes that “commercialisation” cannot ruin Christmas unless one allows it to. He seems to be more optimistic about the holiday, as opposed to his friend Lewis. In a letter to his daughter Priscilla, he writes, “Well here comes Christmas! That astonishing thing that no ‘commercialism’ can in fact defile—unless you let it. I hope, my dearest, that it will bring you some rest and refreshment in every way.” Tolkien approached Christmas with a wider lens, glancing down the corridor of history to see the grand traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. Tolkien overlooked the “commercial racket,” choosing instead to focus on his children’s experiences of the holiday.

One must wonder if Tolkien’s less aversive approach to “commercialisation” stems from the fact that he had children celebrating the holiday in his own home, as opposed to Lewis who had no biological children. However, Lewis did house children twice during his lifetime. First, he housed several children at his home, The Kilns, during World War II. Additionally, Lewis adopted two stepchildren who lived at The Kilns for a brief time after his marriage to American poet Joy Davidman, and Lewis dedicated The Horse and His Boy to David and Douglas Gresham.

Despite this perceived difference in approach to the ideal of Christmas, both men used the figure of Father Christmas to charm generations of children with the great traditions of the past. Both wished to remind the public that Christmas was not meant to be a “commercial racket,” but a holiday brimming with spiritual meaning and endless wonder.

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. Ibiblio, IBiblio, www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Dickens/Carol/Dickens_Carol.pdf. 

“History of Santa Claus & Father Christmas.” Sky HISTORY TV Channel, Arts and Entertainment 

Network UK, www.history.co.uk/article/history-of-santa-claus-father-christmas. 

Lewis, C. S. Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis. Edited by Walter Hooper, Vol. 3, HarperSanFrancisco, 2004. 

---. God in the Dock. Edited by Walter Hooper, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1970. ‘Xmas and Christmas’, pp. 302-3; ‘What Christmas Means to Me’, p. 304.

---. The Chronicles of Narnia. HarperCollins Publishers, 2005. pp. 159-60.

Tolkien, J. R. R. Letters from Father Christmas. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004. pp. 6; 14; 42.

---. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Edited by Humphrey Carpenter, Houghton Mifflin, 2000. p. 232.