Editing Father Christmas (section)

==='Merry England' view of Christmas===
In his 1808 poem ''[[Marmion (poem)|Marmion]]'', [[Walter Scott]] wrote:
:"England was merry England, when / Old Christmas brought his sports again.
:'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightiest ale; / 'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
:A Christmas gambol oft could cheer / The poor man's heart through half the year."<ref name="Marmion">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/marmion05077gut/marmn10a.txt | title=Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field | author=Scott, Walter | year=1808}}</ref>
Scott's phrase [[Merry England]] has been adopted by historians to describe the romantic notion that there was a [[Golden Age]] of the English past, allegedly since lost, that was characterised by universal hospitality and charity. The notion had a profound influence on the way that popular customs were seen, and most of the 19th century writers who bemoaned the state of contemporary Christmases were, at least to some extent, yearning for the mythical Merry England version.<ref name="EnglishYear372&382">{{cite book | title=The English Year | publisher=Penguin Books | author=Roud, Steve | year=2006 | location=London | pages=372, 382 | isbn=978-0-140-51554-1}}</ref>

[[File:Old Christmas riding a goat, by Robert Seymour, 1836.jpg|thumb|175px|left|alt=Engraving of Father Christmas riding a Yule Goat|A [[Merry England]] vision of Old Christmas 1836]]
[[Thomas Kibble Hervey|Thomas Hervey]]'s ''The Book of Christmas'' (1836), illustrated by [[Robert Seymour (illustrator)|Robert Seymour]], exemplifies this view.<ref name="MummersMumming">
{{cite web | url=http://streetsofsalem.com/2014/12/24/ | title=Daily Archives: December 24, 2014 - Mummers Mumming | publisher=streetsofsalem | date=24 December 2014 | access-date=20 January 2016 | author=Daseger | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201123722/http://streetsofsalem.com/2014/12/24/ | archive-date=1 February 2016 | url-status=live}}
</ref> In Hervey's personification of the lost charitable festival, "Old Father Christmas, at the head of his numerous and uproarious family, might ride his goat through the streets of the city and the lanes of the village, but he dismounted to sit for some few moments by each man's hearth; while some one or another of his merry sons would break away, to visit the remote farm-houses or show their laughing faces at many a poor man's door." Seymour's illustration shows Old Christmas dressed in a fur gown, crowned with a holly wreath, and riding a [[Yule Goat|yule goat]].<ref name="Hervey42,285">
{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bookofchristmas00herviala | title=The Book of Christmas: descriptive of the customs, ceremonies, traditions, superstitions, fun, feeling, and festivities of the Christmas Season | author=Hervey, Thomas Kibble | year=1836 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bookofchristmas00herviala/page/42 42], 285 }}. The online version listed is the 1888 American printing. Higher-resolution copies of the illustrations [https://standrewsrarebooks.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/52-weeks-of-inspiring-illustrations-week-27-robert-seymours-book-of-christmas-illustrations-1836/ can also be found online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160214105050/https://standrewsrarebooks.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/52-weeks-of-inspiring-illustrations-week-27-robert-seymours-book-of-christmas-illustrations-1836/ |date=14 February 2016 }}.
</ref>

[[File:Christmas and his children, by Robert Seymour, 1836.jpg|175px|thumb|alt=Engraving|Christmas with his children 1836]]
In an extended allegory, Hervey imagines his contemporary Old Father Christmas as a white-bearded [[Magician (fantasy)|magician]] dressed in a long robe and crowned with holly. His children are identified as Roast Beef (Sir Loin) and his faithful squire or bottle-holder Plum Pudding; the slender figure of Wassail with her fount of perpetual youth; a 'tricksy spirit' who bears the bowl and is on the best of terms with the Turkey; Mumming; Misrule, with a feather in his cap; the Lord of [[Twelfth Night (holiday)|Twelfth Night]] under a state-canopy of cake and wearing his ancient crown; Saint Distaff looking like an old maid ("she used to be a sad romp; but her merriest days we fear are over"); Carol singing; the Waits; and the twin-faced [[Janus]].<ref name="Hervey114-118">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bookofchristmas00herviala | title=The Book of Christmas: descriptive of the customs, ceremonies, traditions, superstitions, fun, feeling, and festivities of the Christmas Season | author=Hervey, Thomas Kibble | year=1836 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bookofchristmas00herviala/page/114 114]–118}}.</ref>

Hervey ends by lamenting the lost "uproarious merriment" of Christmas, and calls on his readers "who know anything of the 'old, old, very old, gray-bearded gentleman' or his family to aid us in our search after them; and with their good help we will endeavor to restore them to some portion of their ancient honors in England".<ref name="Hervey133">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bookofchristmas00herviala | title=The Book of Christmas: descriptive of the customs, ceremonies, traditions, superstitions, fun, feeling, and festivities of the Christmas Season | author=Hervey, Thomas Kibble | year=1836 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bookofchristmas00herviala/page/133 133]}}</ref>

Father Christmas or Old Christmas, represented as a jolly-faced bearded man often surrounded by plentiful food and drink, started to appear regularly in illustrated magazines of the 1840s.<ref name="EnglishYear385"/> He was dressed in a variety of costumes and usually had holly on his head,<ref name="EnglishYear385"/> as in these illustrations from the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'':

<gallery mode="packed" heights="175px" caption="Illustrated London News, 1840s">
File:Old Christmas, Illustrated London News 24 Dec 1842.jpg|alt=Engraving of Old Christmas 1842|Old Christmas 1842
File:The Music in the Hall, Illustrated London News, 23 Dec 1843.jpg|alt=Engraving of Old Christmas or Father Christmas 1843|Old Christmas / Father Christmas 1843
File:Merry Christmas, Illustrated London News, 25 December 1847.jpg|alt=Engraving of Old Christmas 1847|Old Christmas 1847

</gallery>

[[File:Scrooges third visitor-John Leech,1843 edit.jpg|thumb|175px|left|alt=Coloured engraving|'[[Ghost of Christmas Present]]' in [[Charles Dickens]]'s ''[[A Christmas Carol]] 1843''.]]
[[Charles Dickens]]'s 1843 novel ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' was highly influential, and has been credited both with reviving interest in Christmas in England and with shaping the themes attached to it.<ref name="EncChristmas44">{{cite book | title=The World Encyclopedia of Christmas | publisher=McClelland & Stewart Ltd | author=Bowler, Gerry | year=2000 | location=Toronto | pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldencyclopedi00gerr/page/44 44] | isbn=0-7710-1531-3 | url=https://archive.org/details/worldencyclopedi00gerr/page/44 }}</ref> A famous image from the novel is [[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech's]] illustration of the '[[Ghost of Christmas Present]]'.<ref name="Carol">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/christmascarolin20dick#page/n17/mode/2up | title=A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas | publisher=[[Chapman & Hall]] | author=Dickens, Charles | date=19 December 1843 | location=London | pages=79}}</ref> Although not explicitly named Father Christmas, the character wears a holly [[wreath]], is shown sitting among food, drink and [[Wassail|wassail bowl]], and is dressed in the traditional loose furred gown—but in green rather than the red that later become ubiquitous.<ref name="ODEF119-120"/>