Father Christmas & Narnia

HA! Sneak attack! Didn’t expect a second Saturday Note, did you? Well, consider it a Christmas present, of sorts.

I expect I’ll be reading a lot in the next day or so; today I’m scheduled to start re-reading something.

Maybe I’m thinking about this because I recently read a book about Tolkien and Lewis’s friendship.

Father Christmas & Narnia

Alright, folks, I get bothered when people willfully get stupid about Chronicles of Narnia. For instance, at a panel in YALLFest last year, a couple of authors agreed that the Pevensies should have been able to defeat Jadis without Aslan’s help. Which… look, I don’t think I should have to explain that suggesting the climax of a Christian story should be about the heroes not needing Jesus is Missing the Point.

You know what’s another really stupid thing people say about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? It’s that Father Christmas feels out of place. 

[Tolkien agreed with that sentiment, actually, but A), you’re not Tolkien, and B), it’s in part because he had a very different approach to fantasy. His Legendarium was about building a mythology, while Lewis was using mythology to tell a fantastical story.]

“Why is Santa Claus in Narnia?” Because Lewis said so. 

But also, because it’s Christmas. You know what Christmas is? It’s the celebration of the birth of Jesus, yes, but Advent and Christmas, to the Christian, are sets of days to celebrate, anticipate, and prepare for the coming of the Lord. He came to our world, and is prophesied to do so again–so we must be ready. It will be good, but it will not be tame, as the unjust orders of the world will be overthrown (“He will tear your city down, o-lay, o-lai, o-Lord”).

We are told that Narnia hasn’t had Christmas in a hundred years. Aslan hasn’t been sighted in the country in that time, and the White Witch rules as a tyrant. Now, though, with the appearance of the Pevensies, there are rumors He’s returning. And He’s gathering an army to defeat the White Witch.

“Wait for the Lord, His Day is near,” my parish sings at the end of Mass at Advent.

And that’s when Father Christmas appears: when Aslan is returning to Narnia. He his heralding the return of Aslan–of God the Son (for remember, Aslan is not an allegory, He Is God the Son incarnate in this fantasy world of talking animals).

I’ve seen some people make fun of his gifts, too–like, “Hey, isn’t it irresponsible to give weapons to children?”, or taking issue with how he discourages the girls from combat. Again, this ignores context. He gives them what they need–those weapons are very handy in the coming adventures, after all. Even if we didn’t know that they’re about to go to war, they’re traveling through enemy territory to reach Aslan’s camp at the Stone Table.

Also, C.S. Lewis was in World War I, and was very familiar with medieval texts. He knows that historically speaking, women are not treated fairly in war. When Father Christmas tells Susan and Lucy that battles are ugly when women get involved, this isn’t because he thinks they’re less, it’s because he doesn’t want the girls subjected to that. The “It’s because he’s sexist!” reading is bunk anyway, because regardless of Father Christmas’s warning, the girls go into combat anyway. In Horse and His Boy, Queen Lucy rather famously will disguise herself as a man to fight in battles, and many of her allies admire her for it, even if her brothers disapprove. Corin thinks she’s awesome.

It also deliberately forgets that Susan and Lucy have an important role to play in the story, the one with explicit parallels to Biblical saints: acting as witnesses to the Son’s Resurrection. I don’t know if we’re supposed to believe that Father Christmas foresaw this, though I don’t think it’s out of the question.

I think there are possibly legitimate reasons for not enjoying Father Christmas’s presence in the story. Most people don’t go for that, though: they pick the most shallow reasons based on deliberately ignoring what happens in the story.

It’s dumb. It’s purposefully dumb. 

Stop it.

—