Is using "Father Christmas" vs "Santa" a class signifier?

[Flapjacker48]

Upper/upper middle - use "Father Christmas"

Working/lower middle - "Santa"

The "Santa" we use in the UK today is almost an original European export to American and has come back as a tackier and vulgar Santa.

Maybe, but I don't think English people started calling father christmas Santa, after binge watching a lot of Take the High Road

Which is the only programme/film ever to come out of Scotland.

They probably just heard Santa being used and thought “you know, Father Christmas is a really shite name. Santa is so much nicer and friendlier. What fools we are not to have realised this before”

Also when you are very wee and writing letters to ask the Big Man for presents, it's a hell of a lot easier to write "Dear Santa" than "Dear Father Christmas".

@TrashyPanda

Maybe, but I don't think English people started calling father christmas Santa, after binge watching a lot of Take the High Road

Which is the only programme/film ever to come out of Scotland.

They probably just heard Santa being used and thought “you know, Father Christmas is a really shite name. Santa is so much nicer and friendlier. What fools we are not to have realised this before”

Do you have a particular problem accepting the influence of America on our culture ?

Do you have a particular problem accepting the influence of America on our culture

What’s ‘our culture’?

@SirChenjins

Do you have a particular problem accepting the influence of America on our culture

What’s ‘our culture’?

I presume you have the internet, so google is your friend in this instance.

Wonderful though the internet is, I don’t believe it can read the mind of @Pigeoninthehouse. So - on that basis, what do you mean by ‘our culture’?

I've always thought Father Christmas was a protestant thing

Santa Claus references the cult of Saint Nicolas , Father Christmas gained popularity in some Protestant countries as they rejected Catholic practices such as saints. However , the Netherlands, with its religious divides, kept using the name Sinterklaas (St Nick) and took it to America . Santy is most popular in Ireland although some people in Gaeltacht areas say Father Christmas as it’s a direct translation from the Irish as the Christmas tradition/cult of St Nick became popular after the English Norman invasions, replacing the culture of winter solstice, so new language was needed. And for the OP who said they are all different traditions in Europe , they’re not - Christmas just replaced the winter solstice in terms of timing , same festival but different days reflecting geography and culturally different practices . Similarly most likely that Guy Fawkes day replaced older Halloween type celebration in England, therefore giving that annual seasonal marker a different cultural meaning to fit the politics of the time ( just thought I’d get in early in the Halloween thread)

Do you have a particular problem accepting the influence of America on our culture ?

Do you a particular problem accepting that your culture is not synonymous with all cultures in the U.K.?

Your culture is very different to mine.
You have a different education system, a different legal system, just for starters.

Thinking there is only one culture, which just happens to be your culture is very insular.

Santa was used in Scotland way before there were films from America.

In Australia most people say santa whether your rich or poor I don't think I've ever heard father Christmas except in story books

@Missey85

In Australia most people say santa whether your rich or poor I don't think I've ever heard father Christmas except in story books

Me neither..we have always said Santa Klaus

Scottish, not posh, childhood and adulthood down South I've heard both. My perception was Santa informal/modern, Father Christmas older people / more formal settings rather than a class thing.

Postcard written in October 1903 in Ireland saying that Willie is already counting down the days to Santa Claus coming.

Those damn America movies and you tubers. 🙄🙄🙄

@Pigeoninthehouse

Grew up saying father Christmas, from working class background Santa American import.

No it's really not

@Hospedia

Father Christmas = British Santa = Americanism that is now popular in the UK

It has already been established that this is bullshit.

It's like fucking Groundhog Day

How many of these revelatory threads do we need?

I'm Scottish. My GP has a title. We're all very posh. It's Santa

The only time I've heard Father Christmas is from the same sort of people that cannot pronounce their "R"a

[quote Flapjacker48]@Bilingualspingual I have a circle of Scottish friends in Edinburgh (not incomers), middle class and all use Father Christmas.[/quote]
If they're from Edinburgh they're practically English anyway, and don't count.

@cushioncovers

Father Christmas = uk Santa = American

Cushioncovers = unable to read

@Flapjacker48 your Edinburgh chums are putting it on. Nobody in Scotland uses FC.

Why does MN turn everything into a class issue?

FC/Santa is mostly a regional thing.

As for whoever said Father Christmas sounds stuck up, that is purely your imagination, and what’s more, the chip on your shoulder is showing.,

Very working class upbringing, was alway Father Christmas in our house.

No judgment from me on others' use of Santa, it's whatever your family tradition dictates. And no, it's not a marker of class.

The only time I've heard Father Christmas is from the same sort of people that cannot pronounce their "R"a

The same people that add in an R where there isn’t one? So they say “draw-ring”. Sounds so awful.

If they're from Edinburgh they're practically English anyway, and don't count

As anyone from Edinburgh will tell you, the really important question is “where did you go to school”. 😝

The same people that add in an R where there isn’t one? So they say “draw-ring”. Sounds so awful.

Yes! The people who rhyme the girls name Hannah with Spanner.

[quote Ginger1982]@Flapjacker48 your Edinburgh chums are putting it on. Nobody in Scotland uses FC.[/quote]
Agree. I live in Edinburgh, and apart from people who’ve moved north of the border no-one I know says FC.

I wonder what those “Edinburgh” folk who say FC do when they walk past the Heart of Midlothian.