Over the last few days, we’ve been pondering, in a series of posts, the literary history of Father Christmas and Santa Claus. Yesterday, we looked at how Santa’s working relationship with the soft drinks industry is more complicated than we might think. Today, we’re moving from the world of drink to the world of food … Read more
A little digression into the world of advertising for today’s Christmas-themed advent calendar fact. As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, there is a common idea that Coca-Cola ‘invented’ the modern Santa Claus, with the red and white robes being an invention of the soft drinks company – because these were, and are, the colours of … Read more
Yesterday, we delved into the seventeenth-century origins of Father Christmas as a figure associated with revelry and tradition. Here we could see the modern idea of Father Christmas beginning to emerge. But the red robes, the reindeer, and the sleigh had yet to materialise – partly because ‘Father Christmas’ and ‘Santa Claus’ were still viewed … Read more
Father Christmas, we revealed yesterday, was J. R. R. Tolkien. But he had also been knocking about for several centuries before the author of The Hobbit wrote down his adventures. Indeed, the merry fellow first turns up in literature in the age of Shakespeare, as a character in a play – and he is the … Read more
Yesterday’s advent calendar nugget, or interesting literature fact pertaining to Christmas, looked at what connects The Hobbit with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (and pondered that age-old philosophical question of whether Santa Claus is a jerk). Today’s interesting Christmas-themed literature-related fact continues this hobbity theme, but also continues the Santa theme. Did you know that J. R. … Read more