For a look at Santa Claus past, Newtown parents can bring their little ones to see Old Father Christmas.
Everyone can sing some carols and enjoy a treat. The Newtown Historic Association will host a meet-and-greet for Old Father Christmas at its headquarters. This event will be free to attend.
This will be a nostalgic experience of the changing of the personification of the spirit of Christmas from Finland’s Joulupukki, to England’s ancient mid-winter festival figure that was referred to as ‘King Frost’, while Victorian times had ‘St. Nicholas’. Father Christmas, as he was later known, had the famous white beard, wore a long hooded cloak, reindeer pointed boots, and his red suit as he traveled from village to village leaning on his long staff. He distributed small presents from a mistletoe-and-holly clad wicker basket to everyone he met.
Today’s children can meet him and his wife, ‘Olde Lady Christmas’, for a couple of hours in the atmosphere of America’s Colonial era. This is an opportunity to take holiday pictures of the little ones with the jolly old elf for future postcard printing.
The event will be held at the Half Moon Inn, 105 Court St. (at the corner of Centre Avenue and Court Street), in Newtown. Taking place on December 20, it will begin at noon and end around 2:00 pm.
