SANTA ARGH!!

[User202022]

To me it’s always been FATHER CHRISTMAS!

Every book I seem to read to my children containing said jolly man with white beard calls him SANTA BLOOMING CLAWS! (I have to change it even if it means the book no longer rhymes).
i can cope with St Nicholas but just cannot abide by Santa! Argh!
Is this just me?

The image of Santa in the red suit was created by a German (well, a Bavarian as it was then) in the 1800s. The image was already popular when Coca Cola used it.

Ah well. Each to their own. We must all be common in Northern Ireland. But that's ok - better than being a judgemental arsehole.

just face it - it’s really only the English who use Father Christmas.

and that is fine.

but it doesn’t mean the rest of the English speaking world is wrong.

I suppose it's the same people who prefer Mothering Sunday. And believe the urban myth about Coca Cola. Though how anyone could extrapolate from the word "Santa" that it's an Americanism is taking linguistic ignorance to a whole new level. And the bar for that on MN is already pretty low.

Honestly, years on here have taught me that there are people for whom Irish or Northern Irish (and possibly occasionally Scottish) does automatically equal common.

Anything discovered through television or film = American = distasteful. It seems.

Obviously he’s this Father Christmas - the grumpy old one with his, ‘Blooming cats! Blooming aerials! Blooming chimneys! @%&* weather!!’ etc.

Someone gave this book to a little dd years ago - I was 7 months pregnant and laughed so much, my DM was worried that I’d start my baby off!

(IMO it’s wasted on little kids!)

It is Santa in Ireland and Scotland. I have never heard anyone say Father Christmas in real life.

I definitely get that sense too, but definitely also Scottish. There is a total ignorance toward cultural difference and an expectation that a particular type of Englishness is everyone's universal experience. These islands do not and never have had one homogenous culture, but many seem totally oblivious.

I'm talking about the specific 'American Santa' image, which was invented by Coca Cola, I know he had a red suit before that.

In France he’s Father Christmas, too - Pere Noel.

He was always FC in our family, but I’ve never looked on ‘Santa’ as ‘common’ - just different. I don’t know why some MNers are obsessed with turning everything into a class or ‘snob’ issue. Smacks of insecurity to me.

I say both, sometimes in the same sentence.

Says the woman who started this thread about how much she loves fast fashion.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4619211-shein-autumnwinter-wardrobe

Yes. And? 🤨

And...that's something I think of as common. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Ok. Good for you I guess?

Well exactly. That's it in a nutshell.

Why should people be even slightly interested that you think saying Santa Claus is common?

Because this is a thread discussing the usage of both Father Christmas and Santa Claus, so that’s what my reply was about.

This is not a thread about fast fashion, not what people find common in general, therefore your comment was irrelevant, unnecessary and shows you really should have better things to do on a Saturday night than AS posters to try (yet fail) to make some sort of point.

You'll find she's got far less tasteful views than Shein if you look at what she wants to do with asylum seekers.

Oh really? And what’s that then? What do I want to do to asylum seekers?

its always been ‘Father Christmas’ to me but I LOVE it when Scottish people say ‘sanity’. I think they say it in Liverpool too. Bloody brilliant.

Shein is absolutely vile though @YellowTreeHouse, definitely on the list of naughty rather than nice.

ahem, autocorrect failure! I obviously mean ‘Santy’ rather than ‘sanity’!

Every single year blinking year.

As soon as the 'I hate Halloween' threads are done then up pop the 'I hate Santa' threads.

He is only Father Christmas is some parts of England.

Elsewhere in the UK he is Santa or Santy. Always has been always will be.

I don't believe it is either of them.

If I remember correctly it's was my Mum who dragged a pillow case of presents to the bottom of my bed in the early hours of the morning.

(I wonder if the Queen did that for her children?) 🤔

Oh dear.