Being the world’s foremost authority on the history of Christmas carries a heavy responsibility and I realize I have been shirking my duty by not using this space to spread the good news about the world’s favourite holiday. So farewell “Today In History”, and “Today in Church History”; (“Something Wise” will continue until the end of the month). For the foreseeable future it’s all Christmas, all the time.
And so let us begin.
What we have here is the earliest known artistic portrayal of Father Christmas, a woodcut illustrating a 1624 ballad lamenting the loss of hospitality during the holiday season. Some elements of his appearance will be constant over the centuries — a round hat, a long coat, a beard and an antiquarian aspect; he is always meant to represent a figure out of the past.
At this stage, Father Christmas, or Old Christmas, or Captain Christmas was simply meant to personify the festival. The name is not attached to a magical Gift-Bringer until the 19th century.