Père Noël, also known as Father Christmas, is a Christmas folkloric character in France and other French-speaking countries who distributes gifts to children on Christmas Eve. The origin of winter folkloric characters dates back to ancient times, blending ancient pagan cults with influences from both ancient Roman ancestor worship and the subsequent advent of Christianity, incorporating elements from the Old or New Testament into ancient festivities. One such cult was dedicated to Saint Nicholas, whose feast day is observed on December 6. Over time, his image transformed into the German-Dutch Sinterklaas and eventually into Santa Claus.
Likely during the same period, the precursor to the modern Père Noël first appeared in the region of Lorraine, France. According to legend, he visited well-behaved children, presenting them with gifts. He is sometimes accompanied by his antagonist, Père Fouettard, armed with twigs, to discipline naughty, disobedient children. Before the widespread popularity of Père Noël throughout various regions of France, each region had its own Christmas characters. For instance, in the east, particularly in Savoy, Père Chalande was known; in Normandy, it was Barbassionné; and in Burgundy, Père Janvier. In Franche-Comté, a benevolent fairy named Aunt Ari was considered the giver of Christmas gifts.
The Emergence of Père Noël
According to the Historical Base of the French Lexicon from December 23, 1848, this is the first preserved written mention of the name Père Noël:
— Who’s there?
— Old man Père Noël from 1848.
— Deceiver!
— No deception. I am indeed Père Noël, who came to visit you. Open up; I’m freezing.
— Then come in. But honestly, I wasn’t expecting you. Why didn’t you, as usual, tumble down the chimney?
The following is a lengthy humorous dialogue from the same lexicon, primarily focusing on the political realities of the mid-19th century. The tale concludes with:
— Safe travels, Père Noël, and until next year, if we’re still in this world.
Several years after its appearance in the satirical journal, the name Père Noël resurfaces. The next time it appears is in the work of the French writer George Sand, in her multi-volume piece “History of My Life” (Histoire de ma vie), published in 1855:
I haven’t forgotten my absolute belief that through the chimney descends little Père Noël — the kind, white-bearded old man. He is supposed to come at midnight and place a gift in my shoe, which I’ll find upon waking.
— George Sand, History of My Life
Post-World War II Père Noël
After World War II, modern Père Noël arrived in France from the New World alongside the Marshall Plan and Coca-Cola. Modeled after the American Santa Claus, he is a lively white-bearded old man dressed in a red-and-white coat, a similar hat, black boots, and a leather belt. He boldly replaced existing notions of the Christmas grandfather and became prominently used in commerce and advertising.
This development did not sit well with the orthodox-minded Catholic clergy, who considered Père Noël a pagan figure and fought against him as much as possible. In the lead-up to Christmas in 1951, on December 24th, a 34-year-old priest from Dijon named Jacques Nourissat attached an effigy resembling Père Noël to the fence of the city’s cathedral and burned it in front of several hundred parish children. The Dijon church labeled Père Noël an “usurper and heretic” and issued a statement: “It was not a spectacle but a symbolic gesture. […] Lies cannot awaken religious feelings in a child and are by no means a means of education. For us, Christians, the Christmas holiday must remain a celebration of the birth of the Savior.“
The episcopate supported the Dijon initiative and released a statement, which, among other things, said, “Père Noël and the Christmas tree are allowed in public schools, even though they are part of pagan rituals associated with the worship of Nature, having no connection to Christianity. At the same time, in the name of excessive secularism, the same schools rigorously prohibit the use of nativity scenes.“
However, the secular municipality of Dijon disagreed with the actions of the clergy: they placed a figure of Père Noël on the roof of the city hall. Despite the opposition from the church, the figure of Père Noël became increasingly popular in France.
Père Noël’s Post Office
In France
In 1962, Jacques Marette, the Minister of Post and Telecommunications in France, established the office of Père Noël at the main post office in Paris. This office was responsible for responding to letters sent by children to Père Noël. The first “secretary of Père Noël” was Dr. Françoise Dolto, a pediatrician and psychoanalyst who happened to be the sister of Minister Marette. In 1967, with the support of the State Secretary for Budget and concurrently the Mayor of Libourne, Robert Boulin, the Père Noël office was transferred to the post office of Libourne, the only one authorized to open mail addressed to Père Noël.
The popularity of this French postal unit grew steadily. By the early 2000s, the annual flow of correspondence addressed to Père Noël increased, with more than 1.5 million messages from more than 120 countries, including 1.4 million letters and 180,000 emails through a dedicated portal created by La Poste on its website.
The Père Noël office employed 30 people, hired on special 8-week contracts as Christmas approached. Since then, the incoming correspondence has stabilized. In 2012, Père Noël received 1,700,000 letters and 200,000 emails from more than 120 countries. Any child can invent any address and send a letter; the essential thing is that the recipient is specified as Père Noël, and it will be delivered to Libourne Commune in France and processed. In 2014, the story of Père Noël’s postal service was documented in a scientific book written by Antoine Georges.
In Quebec
In the Canadian French-speaking province of Quebec, there is its own Père Noël mail service. It even has a special postal code: H0H 0H0, reminiscent of the laughter of the American Santa Claus in English: ‘Ho-ho-ho!’ This service was established in 1974 at the Montreal branch of Canada Post. It was in that year that postal workers decided to respond to letters addressed to Père Noël (which were previously considered undeliverable) to avoid disappointing their senders, primarily children.
However, the number of such letters grew every year, making it difficult for employees to respond to them on their own initiative. In 1983, an official program for handling such correspondence was launched. Each year, about one million letters are sent to the address of the Canadian Père Noël, and each sender must receive a response.
