Father Christmas in "Punch", reproduced here. The caption reads: In 1951 an editorial in "The Times" opined that while most adults may be under the impression that [the English] Father Christmas is home-bred, and is "a good insular John Bull old gentleman", many children, "led away ... by the false romanticism of sledges and reindeer", post letters to Norway addressed simply to Father Christmas or, "giving him a foreign veneer, Santa Claus". Differences between the English and US representations were discussed in "The Illustrated London News" of 1985. The classic illustration by the US artist Thomas Nast was held to be "the
Father Christmas plentiful food and drink, started to appear regularly in illustrated magazines of the 1840s. He was dressed in a variety of costumes and usually had holly on his head, as in these illustrations from the "Illustrated London News": 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. A famous image from the novel is John Leech's illustration of the 'Ghost of Christmas Present'. Although not explicitly named Father Christmas, the character wears a holly wreath, is shown sitting among