Father Christmas Belongs in Narnia
J.R.R. Tolkien should've recognized C.S. Lewis’ goal.
For many, the inclusion of Father Christmas in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a bridge too far. They assume this is just another example of C.S. Lewis cramming in random mythological creatures with no rhyme or reason. J.R.R. Tolkien famously criticized Narnia for this reason, but Lewis was making a Christmas connection similar to one Tolkien made.
In The Lord of the Rings, the fellowship leaves Rivendell on December 25. Additionally, their mission is accomplished on March 25, the traditional date of Jesus’ crucifixion. Through his calendar dating, Tolkien connected his story to the church calendar. By starting the journey on Christmas Day, he’s marking the beginning of good triumphing over evil. Suffering will still happen, but in the end, darkness will be defeated. The rightful king will reign.
The Narnia link was slightly more explicit than Middle-earth’s, yet Tolkien still seemed to miss it (or at least not appreciate it).1 The inclusion of Father Christmas in Narnia tells the same story as the fellowship beginning their trek on December 25. The days of evil are numbered, and the true king will soon be on the throne.
In the chapter “The Spell Begins to Break” of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, note what Father Christmas says:
I’ve come at last. She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch’s magic is weakening.
Before this moment, Narnia is in a perpetual Advent of “always winter and never Christmas” because of the White Witch’s rule. Father Christmas signals to the reader that the time of waiting is over. Christmas is come because “Aslan is on the move.”
While we know this is not the first time Aslan has arrived in the history of Narnia, he was there at the creation in The Magician’s Nephew, this is his first appearance within the Narnia story.2 It serves as Aslan’s incarnation story.
Lewis recognized how the fantasy story of Narnia he had begun to compose could “steal past the watchful dragons,” as he wrote in “Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said” from On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature. Wanting children to truly understand the significance of Jesus, he undoubtedly would begin with an incarnation story.
It was the incarnation, after all, that Tolkien and Hugo Dyson pointed to in their famous conversation with Lewis on Addison Walk. The two men helped Lewis understand the incarnation of Jesus is the “True Myth.” Reflecting on the conversation in Surprised by Joy, Lewis wrote: “If ever a myth had become a fact, had been incarnated, it would be just like this.”
After his conversion, Lewis regarded the incarnation as the theological key to understanding Christianity. In Miracles, he writes, “The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.”
From the essay, “The Grand Miracle” in God in the Dock:
… the Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left.
In Miracles, Lewis describes all of history and humanity narrowing down to “one small bright point like the head of a spear” to a “Jewish girl at her prayers,” speaking of Mary and Gabriel announcement of her upcoming pregnancy.
Lewis saw Father Christmas as a way to connect the story of Jesus’ incarnation in our world with the incarnation in Narnia. Father Christmas’ arrival coinciding with Aslan’s is meant to indicate Aslan’s identity to readers. In fact, Lewis spells out this purpose in a letter to an 11-year-old from New York.
After reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Hila Newman asked Lewis about the “other name” of Aslan that Lucy and Edmund were meant to learn coming back to our world.
Instead of giving her the answer, Lewis pointed her to several clues from the stories:
Has there never been anyone in this world who (1.) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas. (2.) Said he was the son of the Great Emperor. (3.) Gave himself up for someone else’s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people. (4.) Came to life again. (5.) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb (see the end of the Dawn Treader). Don’t you really know His name in this world. Think it over and let me know your answer!
Father Christmas belongs in Narnia because he signals to the characters and the readers that the story is about to change, just as his arrival signals a change in our world. The Advent wait is over. Aslan is on the move.
Sources:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — C.S. Lewis
The Magician’s Nephew — C.S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life — C.S. Lewis
Miracles — C.S. Lewis
God in the Dock — C.S. Lewis essays
On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature — C.S. Lewis essays
The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950-1963 — Editor: Walter Hooper
The Lord of the Rings — J.R.R. Tolkien
“Why the Fellowship Left Rivendell on December 25” — Thomas McIntyre, Voyage
“An Inklings Christmas” — Crystal Hurd, Illuminations of the Fantastic
Both Lewis and Tolkien included Father Christmas in their writing. Lewis in Narnia and Tolkien in letters to his children as Father Christmas every year, collected as Letters From Father Christmas.
This is yet another reason why The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe should be the first book read when reading The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time.
