The Parish Magazine December 2024

parish noticeboard — 5
Father who?
One person you are bound to run into this Christmas
season is Father Christmas. These days he seems to
frequent shopping malls and garden centres. If he looks
tired, just remember that he has been around a long
time and gone through a lot of transformations.
Father Christmas wasn’t always the red-suited, whitebearded
star of the retail trade that he is today. He
began life as Nicholas, born about AD260 in Patara, an
important port on the southern coast of Turkey.
When his parents died and left him a fortune, Nicholas
gave it to the poor. He became a bishop of the nearby city
of Myra, where he almost certainly suffered persecution
and imprisonment at the hand of the Roman Emperor
Diocletian.
Nicholas was a serious theologian: he was a participant
at the First Council of Nicaea, which formulated the Creed
that we say today. He even, reportedly, slapped another
bishop in a squabble over the exact nature of the Trinity.
Nicholas died in Myra about AD343, but the stories
of his generosity and kindness were just beginning. One
enduring tale tells of the three girls whom he rescued
from certain prostitution by giving them gold for their
dowries. When the father confronted him to thank him,
Nicholas said he should thank God alone.
In the UK, Nicholas became the basis for Father
Christmas, who emerged in Victorian times as a jollyfaced
bearded character. Meanwhile, Dutch and German
settlers had taken him to America with them as Sinter
Klaas and Sankt Niklas.
'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
It was in America that Nicholas received his final two
great breaks into real stardom. The first was when the Rev
Clement C Moore, a New York Episcopal minister, turned
from his life-work of writing a Hebrew/English lexicon, to
write a fun poem for his children one Christmas. His ‘The
Visit of St Nicholas’ is now universally known by its first
line: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.
From Clement Moore we discovered that St Nicholas is
round and pink-cheeked and white-bearded, and that he
travels at night with sleigh, reindeer and a sack of toys on
his back. It was also Clement Moore who revealed that St
Nicholas enters houses down chimneys and fills children’s
stockings with toys and sweets.
So how did we find out that Father Christmas wears
red? That was the US Coca-Cola advertising campaign
of 1931, when they finally released the latest, up-to-date
pictures of Father Christmas — he wearing a bright red,
fur-trimmed coat and a large belt.
These days, it is good that Father Christmas uses
reindeer and doesn’t have to pay for petrol!
In order to get round all the children in the world on
Christmas Eve, he will have to travel 221 million miles
at an average speed of 1,279 miles a second, that's 6,395
times the speed of sound.
For all those of us who are already exhausted just
rushing around getting ready for Christmas, that is a
sobering thought.
From the
editor's
desk
The Parish Magazine — December 2024 13
Your ideas are
always welcome
I have just added another folder to the shelf where I keep a a
printed copy of each of the The Parish Magazines that I have
edited. Each folder holds a complete year, the first being
for 2013. The latest — currently empty — folder is for 2025
which means I have had the pleasure of producing The Parish
Magazine for 12 years. If my mother was alive she would now
be panicking because for her 13 was very unlucky, but the
good news is that for me, it is no such thing, and I am looking
forward to my 13th year as editor.
Looking at the first issue I edited made me realise how
much it has changed physically since then; it has more pages
which are larger in size, and it is printed in full colour. The
difference is even greater compared with the first issue of The
Parish Magazine published in 1869, which is not surprising
because the world has changed beyond recognition since the
time Victoria was on the throne. We are now on our sixth
monarch since her.
GENERAL INTEREST
The most interesting comparison is, however, that the
content of the current magazine is more like the first issues
published in 1869 which had a broad range of articles and
stories designed to be of general interest, although always
with a Christian background.
It had always been a 'paid-for' magazine which restricted
its circulation and over time had turned into a document
focused on recording the events directly related to St
Andrew's Church Sonning. In other words, it had become
very inward looking which had the consequence that less
than 100 copies were being printed. Today, we print and
distribute 2,300 copies free of charge for readers each month,
and current issues are also available to be read online at
https://www.theparishmagazine.co.uk
I always welcome ideas for stories and feature articles,
and indeed, I always welcome written full length articles,
although I can't promise that I won't edit them a little!
I am also willing to help with the actual writing of articles
if you feel, as I know some people do, that they are not able to
put words on paper in a meaningful way. As a journalist I did
this all my working life, ghost writing articles for engineers
and business managers who, while they were excellent at
what they did, often found it difficult to put their ideas and
thoughts on paper, or indeed, because they did not have the
time to do what I was being paid to do!
While on this subject of writing, I am still welcoming
articles for the 'Why I am a Christian' series that we started
last April. To date, we have published seven in the series and
judging by the 150+ people who attend St Andrew's Sonning
services every week there is scope for many more! As always,
I am happy to help with the writing, so please give me a call!
135 DECEMBER 2O24.indd 13 13/11/2024 10:15:02