Father Christmas or Santa ??? ... Which name to choose !!!

[smiles4u]

Hi all,

Sorry a bit of a long one here ...

My DP & i both grew up in a generation of calling the big jolly man in the red suit ... FATHER CHRISTMAS (we both personally knew of no-one calling him SANTA when we were kids ... i was a kid of the 70's whereas DP was a kid of the 80's (i'm 10years older than DP if that explains) ...

Anyway, as we have our only child a sweet nearly 2.5year old daughter we are torn by choosing what name to refer to the big jolly man

We both agree that Father Christmas is a very special name to us both whilst being a child ... and brings wonderful memories & feelings with the name ... whereas the name reference of Santa truely gives us no where near the same emotional connection to Christmas.

Last Christmas whilst standing in a huge queue waiting for the big jolly man to arrive at the Shopping centre every child & parent around us were calling him Santa.

I guess our only concern is we don't want our child to be the odd one out in calling him Father Christmas (which she hasn't learnt yet).

I have looked into the history of both names and it's still unclear to me if Santa (not Santa Clause) is an American fady name that came from a Coke Cola promotion of many years ago

I don't want to turn this into a religious debate or offend anyone (as i hope no one offends our beliefs) ... So, therefore i'm Happy to hear religious and non-religious responses as to ... WHY YOU CHOOSE TO USE THE NAME FATHER CHRISTMAS or SANTA ???

Huge THANKS to those that can share their thoughts, etc ...

Cheers from Lorelle Adam & our lil lady Cendrine

[briggsy's girl]

can you call "the big guy" Father Christmas (as in the one that visits) and the shopping centre Santa cos they're his helpers??

[Tinsel]

We grew up calling him Santa so that is the name I am used to but I know people who say Father Christmas and Saint Nicholas.

My personal opinion is that Father Christmas is special in your family so I would stick with that and when DD is a bit older, maybe explain that people call the jolly man different names.

[BekZ]

We grew up with Santa, Father Christmas and Saint Nicholas. We just accepted that he had a few different names. Although my parents made sure we knew the story of Baby Jesus too.

My DH is Polish so the big fella has yet another name and he comes on Christmas Eve, not in the morning!!! So our girls get a visit from the Polish Santa and the the Aussies Santa.

[Mum0809]

We grew up calling him Santa. I think its up to you what you want to call him. I really like bg suggection.

[sconeonamission]

We called him Santa / Santa Claus, but mum is Dutch - so he's also Sinterklaas to me. I call him both, so that ds can have the best of both worlds.

[loulabelle]

We used to call him Santa.

[BhoysGirl]

I grew up calling him Father Christmas, and have the same emotional connection to it as you've described. Santa just doesn't do it for me, it just sounds commercial. DF on the other hand has a surname that is very similar sounding to Claus, so they used to call him Santa C...as if he were part of their family.

I suspect that I'll start by using Father Christmas, but DF will use Santa, so DS will probably grow up with a bit of both, although if I'm realistic, I think it will default to Santa eventually. But I'll fight it for a while

[Calma]

In Spain we call him Papa Noel

[AnyDream]

We call him Father Christmas (and he still gets called that in the Adelaide Christmas Pageant, too btw!), however as DD1 has gotten older she's heard other ppl calling him Santa so it's pretty much interchangeable in our house now.

But I'll always be a Father Christmas purist!