To hate the now common usage of "santa"

[Creambun2]

Just this really. Santa is a vulgar Americanism.

What was wrong with father Christmas ffs.

I’ve only ever known Santa. Father Christmas I’ve only ever heard in very old fashioned English movies and shows. Growing up I would have got laughed at if I had said in school I was going to see Father Christmas.

Songs referring to Father Christmas seem to be much rarer.

There is the Greg Lake one; one by The Kinks, one by U2 and one by Elvis Costello (although the latter 3 are broadly of the "life is all a bit terrible these days" variety) and apparently one by Spinal Tap.

As a child I loved The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but I doubt if I said "Father Christmas" (although given how pretentious I was it is not outwith the bounds of possibility)

But you say "outwith" which suggests you are Scottish, so why would you?

I can assure you my Cockney grandparents weren't being pretentious or middle class when they talked about Father Christmas.

In reference to some earlier posts about Black Friday, it is so sad that y'all have to put up with that foray into unbridled consumerism but without Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday in part because it keeps Christmas at bay until early December. But most of all, because it it doesn't involve buying anything except food.

Why would I not say it just because I am in Scotland? Being in Scotland doesn't mean living in homogeneity. My mother spent a lot of time away from Scotland. I loved Narnia and posh boarding school books so between that and my mother it is not impossible that at home Father Christmas might have been used.

And neither my father nor my step father were Scottish.

This explains English DP's insistence on using "Father Christmas", which I thought was a bit odd, as he has always been Santa Claus in my Irish family, and "Father Christmas" sounded like one of those quaintly old-fashioned English phrases that people don't really say, like "cor blimey" or "I say!" or "lawks!".

why would I not say it just because I am in Scotland?

Because we've just had 16 pages of Scottish people saying Santa is always used in Scotland and anyone who says Father Christmas is a stuck-up, pretentious, hoity-toity Hyacinth Bouquet!!

I'd say people use both. Like Mr Christmas is his Sunday name but it's 'santa/santy' at the pub. When did this become a class thing?

Ludog Tbf "Daidí na Nollag" translates as Daddy Christmas, much more cuddly than the rather stuffy stern-sounding Father Christmas

Santa has Mrs. Claus. Is there a Mother Christmas?

I think there is.

I'm 56 and Scottish - but my parents were not (at least, weren't when I was wee before they formally considered themselves adopted Scottish). So, we had Father Christmas at home - but I remember being aware that my friends called him Santa Claus

I even remember being aware, as I got older and stopped believing that the name Santa Claus was derived from St Nicolas.

Never crossed my mind to think that it was a vulgar Americanism because it's not

SenecaFalls

Santa has Mrs. Claus. Is there a Mother Christmas?

Goodness knows. There might be in the Raymond Briggs books.

I have in my possession a letter from my Scottish great grandmother to Santa, dated 1898. I am not sure why the family hung onto it, other than the fact that she died very young leaving not very much stuff.

But in it she addresses him as her "Dearest Santa Clause" and asks for a dolly.

I'd never think of calling him anything but santa!

A little bit of a detour, but I have noticed that very often on MN, when someone mentions Americanism, the word "vulgar" precedes it as though it is considered vulgar by virtue of the fact that it is an Americanism.

Y'all need to stop doing that. Besides the word Americanism is itself an Americanism so maybe the American English haters should not use it at all.

Vulgar Americanism! Oh my oh my heavens no, there shall be no adopting of 'Americanisms'. Tell me have they anything that is not vulgar? Dreadful people with their peculiar ways. SenecaFalls away with you and your 'y'all', the children may hear!

Good thing Santa is NOT an 'Americanism', vulgar or otherwise. I should be appalled to think I'd been using a vulgarity for the past 45 years.

@MarDhea you're right...Daddy Christmas it is.
And while we're here.... it's not Boxing Day, it's St Stephen's day (or Ssthevenses Day depending on how far out Weshst you are ).

at Katie

Some linguists believe that y'all has Scots antecedents.

Just this really. Santa is a vulgar Americanism.

No it's not.

Santa has been called Santa since at least the 1970s in my part of Scotland.

Haven't RTFT. I see I'm not the first person to say this!

Some linguists believe that y'all has Scots antecedents.

"Youse" anyone?

Lol at shteevenzes
:-p

pfftt "o'irish" culture maybe

What a pathetic, insular, cuntish thing to say OP. I'm embarrassed for you, showing how stupid you are to everyone like that.

Santa/Santy here all the way I don't know anyone who calls him Father Christmas.

I can't imagine how up yourself and petty someone must sound actually correcting a child who says Santa to Father Christmas, poor kids.