Crikey

[CadburysTastesVileNow]

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7804799/Mother-shamed-saying-Father-Christmas-Santa-not-gender-neutral.html

Um, Santa is a bloke. St Nicholas was a man.

There is nothing 'gender neutral' about saying Santa. It's just what Scots, Irish, Americans call Father Christmas because we followed the Dutch lead not the English.

Looking forward to the Trans-Nativity, with big butch bearded Mary being visited by the angel of the xrd:

• And you shall bear a child, and they will be assigned Jesus.

• But how can I? For I have no ovaries or womb?

• The Spirit of the Xrd God shall come upon you.

• Ooo-er!

...and there were woke men in that land, and they saw a gender-neutral sign.

Mother Christmas obviously female, winter witch we think also female!

Father Christmas - the ultimate bearded lady!
Is this a real story, or is it like the ones where rumours abound, that local authorities want to ban Christmas because it might offend other religions?

Oh please do it Mockers

Mockers . . .

I hope they leave Babushka alone. The best Christmas present story ever!

Huh! It's like the people who say "Merry Christmas" to me - and then hastily apologise, because I'm Jewish. You know what? I'm not offended. Not only am I not offended, I happily say "Merry Christmas" to people. After all, I would say "Happy Birthday" to you on your birthday, when it's not my birthday, so what's the big deal with giving you a traditional celebratory greeting on another of your festivals?

I'll sing Jingle Bells with you, but maybe I won't sing the more worshipful, praising carols. Either way, I'm not offended to be hearing them all over the place at this season. (Well, actually I am, but that's because of the overload of hackneyed cheese.)

Stop being offended on my behalf! Your self-righteous, over-cautious 'inclusivity' is offensive in its own right.

It's Father Christmas.

Come to think of it, 'Father Christmas' is more inclusive than 'Santa' - in my mind FC is more faith-neutral than Saint Nicholas.

Looking forward to the Trans-Nativity, with big butch bearded Mary being visited by the angel of the xrd:

xrd sounds like a Dr Who villain.

I had a rather weird conversation with my friend the other day, when I was looking to arrange for someone to come and play the part of St Nicholas for a party. She was confused that the costume wasn't just a typical Santa Clause outfit, he was clearly a bishop, and he had oranges and so on.

It turned out she had no idea that St Nicholas was a real person, and somehow she hadn't really twigged that he was a religious figure either.

I wonder how common that is?

I'm not English so please don't quote me on this but I understand from another thread on the natter that Father Christmas is not directly derived from St Nicholas in the way Santa Claus is, but harks back to early pagan traditions which were amalgamated with the Christian saint.

(as I say, this could be bollocks it was something I read on AIBU)

Advert for our local Santa specified that applicants had to be men, quoting genuine occupational requirement. Was sorely tempted to Man Friday it and rock up.

Ffs.

Santa is married. Mrs Claus runs the family business managing the Elf Workshop whilst Mr Claus is off show boating and doing all the PR and photo shoots.

IIRC Father Christmas is old Father Time, who is invoked at Yuletide, the turning of the year, the longest night, to bring back the sun. The Christianisation of the Western world, where mid-winter was dark and cold, and leads into the starving time just before spring, conflated the celebration of the sun-return at Yule with Christ's birth, and thus FC with the much later Saint Nicolas.