A museum Germany has applied for Father Christmas to be added to the UNESCO's list of cultural heritage as its origins are "under threat" because of America's Santa Claus.
Felicitas Höptner, director of the German Christmas Museum in the Bavarian city of Rothenburg, argues that Father Christmas is overshadowed by American Santa, reported the Daily Telegraph.
Germans believe that a number of Christmas traditions such as the X'mas tree, the nutcracker, glass baubles, the Advent calendar and the Christmas market, originated in the country.
According to Höptner, Germans have forgotten the roots of Father Christmas. Also, they do not know the difference between the 'Ho Ho Ho', ever-jolly Santa Claus and Father Christmas.
Höptner explained that Father Christmas, known as "Weihnachtsmann" in German, was created during the Reformation in the country at the time when Protestants rejected worship of saints. They preferred an alternative gift-giver to the sacred Nicholas with his bishop's mitre and crook, reported the Telegraph. The modern day Santa Claus was invented in the mid 19th century after a magazine in Munich published a drawing of a grim- looking man in a hooded coat carrying a candlelit Christmas tree through the snow.
After some decades, Thomas Nast, a German-born cartoonist, presented the tradition to the U.S. was reinvented in his illustrations that saw Father Christmas in a hat and shortened coat.
Following this, Höptner and other museum officials decided to apply for Father Christmas and Saint Nicholas, the fourth century Greek bishop he is derived from, to be listed in UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
"The traditional Father Christmas brings gifts but can also dole out punishment. In our kindergartens, the German Father Christmas still asks: 'Have you been good?,'" she told the Telegraph.
However, as Santa Claus is portrayed as a loving old man who happily forgives children, he has devil-like counterpart known Krampus.
Krampus, is a beast-like creature, from the Alpine countries myths that is known to punish misbehaved children. He, too, has German origins. This probably explains why Father Christmas asked the questions such as whether children behaved properly throughout the year.
