For all 3 countries, the legend is the same: the Three Wise Men knocked on a woman's door to ask her to come with them to bring gifts to Jesus. She refused, but a few moments later changed her mind. She filled a bag with gifts and set off on the road to catch up with them, without success. She came across children who were unable to help her and to whom she distributed the gifts as a thank you. She is the one who has come back every year since.

What happened to this Mother Christmas that we have forgotten her so?

Mother Christmas made a fatal mistake: she got married! At the beginning of the 19th century, she met a bishop, Saint Nicholas, who was distributing gifts in the East of France. They were beautiful, they were talented, they were popular, it was love at first sight.

One of the first evocations of a Father Christmas as we know him today is in the arms of Mrs. Noelle. In 1849, James Rees shares the story of a charming old couple, who, in an inn, leave kind gifts.

They settle at the North Pole, but Mother Christmas still wants to remain independent. The writer Katharine Lee Bates explains this in a poem published in 1889: Mother Christmas refuses to be confined to the role of housewife and also demands to be able to distribute gifts.

According to Little Mother Christmas, a 1996 musical, Mother Christmas, played by Angela Lansbury, even left Santa Claus in the lurch in 1910. She joined New York and the fight for women's rights and against child labor. She needed a change in her life, she could no longer stand being an invisible woman, growing old in the shadow of her husband's beard. She wanted to show that she existed.

The power of Coca-Cola's marketing will soon crush his hopes and his legend. From 1930, it will be Santa Claus, who alone will sign the contract as star influencer of the red brand. Soon we only see Santa Claus everywhere. Pierre Perret will not go so far as to sing "Mother Christmas, Mother Christmas where are you...".

If we are to believe the Internet, Mother Christmas would have a hard time getting over it. A Google Image search for “Mother Christmas” and we can quickly imagine that she could be either in a nursing home or in a strip club. I hope she is free, and I think that among other gifts she offers to society, she does not forget to make a donation every Christmas to the Women's Foundation so that neither she nor others are ever forgotten again. Merry Christmas to all.

Article from France Culture:

• Anne-Cécile Mailfert Founder of the Women's Foundation, former Spokesperson for Dare Feminism. Read here.