Who is Mother Christmas or Madame Noël?<

While we know Santa Claus well, this sympathetic old man with a red costume and the long white beard that distributes gifts to children around the world the night of December 24 to 25, his partner remains very mysterious!Legendary character, Mother Christmas has multiple origins that make her well enigmatic...

The origins of Mother Christmas

Mentioned for the first time in 1849 by James Rees in his tale a Christmas legend in which he told the story of an elderly couple traveling with packets on the back and welcomed in the house of a family the day before Christmas.The next morning, the children discovered lots of gifts for them.In 1851, she appeared in the pages of literary magazine Yale Literary Magazine relating the appearance of Santa Claus during a Christmas party that received help from his wife.Then, in 1878, a book for children Lill in Santa Claus Land and Other Stories, written by Ellis Towne, Sophie Mai and Ella Farman, tells an imaginary visit to the office of Santa Claus with Mother Christmas writing to her office.

It was Katherine Lee Bates who really created the figure of Mother Christmas in 1889 in her poem "Goody Santa Clause on Sleigh Ride".Goody being the popular abbreviation of Goodwife symbolizing the housewife.In the poem, Mother Christmas managed to convince her husband who accepts that she accompanies her on her sleigh and helps him distribute the gifts.

In Italy, Mother Christmas is compared to Befana, Russia in Babouchka, Spain in Sainte-Catherine, all three distributing gifts or sweets to children.

The representation of Mother Christmas

Called Madame Noël or Mother Christmas, the wife of Santa Claus wants to be discreet.She likes to prepare cakes for her nice husband, take care of the house, famous reindeer and supervise the making of toys with the elves.

Physically, Madame Noël is the female counterpart of Santa Claus.She wears a red suit and hat, boots, she is round and elderly, with curly white hair and glasses at the end of her nose.On the character's side, if Santa Claus is an exuberant old man, Mother Christmas is a calm and discreet temperament.

His meeting with Santa Claus

One Christmas evening, when the old lady was watching, she would have heard Santa Claus who came to drop her off a gift.It was immediately the love at first sight and Santa Claus offered to follow him and settle with him in Lapland.Mother Christmas immediately accepted and became his wife.She then decided to take the same clothing attributes as her husband.