Santa vs father Christmas

[Blinkingheckythump]

I know it's totally unimportant and hence iabu but it really irks me that everything seems to be santa these days and not father Christmas. It was always father Christmas when I was growing up. I miss it! Why has it changed over time? I say father Christmas to the kids but they hear santa everywhere else so usually say santa themselves. Am I being unreasonable in wishing it was still father Christmas?!

Incase it needs clarifying, this is very lighthearted. I'm aware it's not really an issue

It's always been santa to me and I'm almost 40. However my parents would say father Christmas and the older generation to a young child might say daddy Christmas, I'm in NI. My dad said it was never santa growing up in 50s Belfast.

@Hospedia

Santa is British. Last I checked Scotland, NI, and NE England were part of Britain.

NI is part of the UK not Britain, don't want to derail the thread but this fucks me off.

I’ve never heard a single Scottish person utter the words Father Christmas

Another Scot here and it has always been Santa. I don't know anyone who says Father Christmas.

@Saoirse82 NI is part of the UK not Britain, don't want to derail the thread but this fucks me off.

Last time I dared to mention that a whole bunch of NIers jumped down my throat and told me very firmly that they were British.

I guess in this day and age anyone can identify as anything, so why not?

When I was growing up in NW England in the 80's it was father christmas (working class background). Am in NI now and everyone says Santa, DH thinks saying FC is the poshest of posh things.

Always been Santa in Scotland

@SylvanianFrenemies

Father Christmas sounds ridiculously affected and Hyacinth Bucketesque to me, however I get that it is traditional in some parts of England so of course sounds quite natural to some.

Let me guess, OP. Do you also object to Halloween because it wasn't part of your childhood, and you are similarly unable to comprehend that there are legitimate traditions that don't originate in middle class home-counties homes?

Don't be so ridiculous. My preference for the term father Christmas is nothing to do with any of those things. Fwiw I love Halloween, I'm in a mixed ethnicity relationship (not home County!) and am faaaar from middle class. Based on more level headed replies it is likely more to do with the part of the UK I was raised in (South England).

It's interesting to read that it's always santa in Scotland. And santa /santy in Ireland. These are things I did not know.

Born and bred in the South East but always Santa from the beginning as one parent is Scottish and other one English.

Well I'm Scottish, my entire family are Scottish and we've all always said Father Christmas, as did my friends growing up.
So much for that theory then.

How does "Father Christmas" not sound cuddly and jolly?! We use both here (SW England) but it was Father Christmas when I was little and I much prefer that. It sounds more traditional to me.

I've never heard Santy before though

www.english-heritage.org.uk/christmas/the-history-of-father-christmas/

This is an interesting read though!

Definitely FC in my house (London but not posh!)

That was a good read @sparepantsandtoothbrush

Ooh thanks for that article. From that read, FC has taken all the credit for Santa’s hard work, typical bloke . Was FC growing up. I’ve done Santa with dd. FC seems more patriarchal and everyone where we live says Santa. I’m happy with my choices. Dh is foreign btw so he’s taken the lead from me of what to call the man in the beard.

@Strokethefurrywall

Was Father Christmas in my youth (Londoner), but have lived overseas in Caribbean for 15 years and it’s Santa here and that’s how the kids refer to him.

But we’re not weird enough to attach class connotations to how we refer to the man in red, only seems to be those in UK that do.

Well the only people weird enough to attach class connotations on this thread are the ones accusing other people of being middle class or ‘Hyacinth Bouquet’. MN inverted snobbery at it’s finest.

Father Christmas here. I know that Santa or Santy are used in Scotland and Ireland.

Scot living in England. Always Santa not least because Santa Claus is a contraction of St Nicholas from whom many Christmas traditions stem.

Father Christmas. Can't bear Santa.

56 and from the Midlands. Always been Santa.
The origins of the two ideas as a "Christmas" thing aren't that much different in terms of age, with FC being in common use for about a hundred years before SC. Arguably of course the term SC is older.

I call him Santa, I'm Scottish. My husband calls him Sunty, he's Scottish too.

Always Father Christmas for me.

Aww... i thought there was going to be a scrap.

Father Christmas to win.

@Lagomtransplant

Is this another "ooh, look at me, I'm such a wonderful example of mumsnet MC" windup?

It's your opinion. Sometimes, opinions are like farts. You really want to keep them to yourself.

No, it's an annual tradition to have this thread, or very similar

It shows how many people don't know the pagan origins of Father Christmas - goes back to the Green Man who ante-dated Christianity by a considerable margin (some think he was an important part of the 'bridge' when Christianity was taking over Europe by assimilation)

And how many don't realise how that assimilation varied by region, and some were much more firmly Christian, with Santa Claus, than others, and how that heritage is reflected through the generations in the speech habits.

Saint Nicolas anybody?