is the professor Santa claus? *NM*

[monkiri]

[Leslie]

[A#minor]

Yeah, definitely No! That would be weird.

[carol]

Santa Claus does not appear in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.

You are thinking of Father Christmas, who came from a different northern European tradition of midwinter festivals (personification of the feast in its pagan times). He is the mythological character who appears in LWW.

The Santa Claus tradition was taken to America by Dutch immigrants; he was the patron saint of children, originally a Christian bishop from Turkey. His celebration day is December the 6th.

Although the two figures have become somewhat blurred in the later 20th century, they remain distinct. Many Europeans only know Santa Claus (the American movie version) although some English people refer to him as Father Christmas.

Now, in the book of LWW, the professor is an English man living in a large country house. He is a university professor. Father Christmas is one of the many mythological figures who are found throughout Narnia.

[john]

Thank you, Carol, for that wonderfully long explanation.

Tell me, did you get that from NarniaWeb, too?

[carol]

[Roonwit]

[carol]

No, because the mythological character Father Christmas is ageless. Digory Kirke is in time like us.

[Roonwit]