From texts about the domestic role of women to anti-women’s suffrage propaganda, Mother Christmas was a caricatured protagonist of discussions about women’s rights in the 19th century.
Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” from 1823 redefined Christmas in America. As historian Steven Nissenbaum explains in “The Battle for Christmas,” Moore’s secular Saint Nicholas undermined the holiday’s religious associations, turning it into a family celebration which culminated with Santa’s toy deliveries on Christmas Eve.
Nineteenth-century writers, journalists, and artists rushed to add details about Santa Claus that Moore’s poem did not include: a toy workshopa house at the North Pole and a list of nice guys and naughty guys. They also decided that Santa wasn’t single; was married to Mrs. Christmas.
However, scholars tend to ignore the evolution of Santa’s wife. You may see brief references to a handful of poems about Mrs. Late 19th century Christmas – especially “Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride” by Katharine Lee Bates, 1888.
But the writers who created Mrs. Christmas weren’t just interested in filling in the blanks in Santa’s personal life. The poems and stories about Mrs. Claus that appeared in newspapers and popular periodicals spoke of the central role of women on the Christmas holiday. The character also served as a canvas for exploring contemporary debates about gender and politics.
The hardest working woman in the North Pole
Christmas in 19th-century America depended on women’s time and labor: Women prepared family celebrations, organized community and religious events, and worked in industries that fueled the seasonal demand for postcards, toys, and clothing.
This work was essential and sometimes exhausting: As the century drew to a close, Ladies’ Home Journal urged its readers to not “getting tired preparing for Christmas”.
Many literary representations of Mrs. Natal paid tribute to the long hours of work, practical knowledge and management skills that women’s holiday preparations required.
Sara Conant’s 1875 short story “Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus,” which appeared in an 1875 edition of Western Rural: Weekly Journal for the Farm & Fireside, celebrated these efforts, describing Mrs. Santa working alongside women from across America as cooked, cleaned and sewed. In Ada Shelton’s 1885 story “In Santa Claus Land,” Santa Claus acknowledged his debt to Mrs. Claus. Christmas: Without his hard work, he “would never make it through” the holiday season.
But on Christmas Eve, Mrs. Natal reached the glass ceiling of the North Pole.
For Conant, Mrs. Claus was as “indispensable” as Santa Claus, an equal partner in “working together” to prepare for Christmas festivities. Still, in most literature about Mrs. Christmas, Santa Claus traveled the world filling stockings while Mrs. Natal stayed at home waiting for his return. In “Mrs. Santa Claus Asserts Herself”, 1884, the tearful Mrs. Sarah J. Burke’s Christmas, ignored by Santa Claus and his fans, is left to “cowl alone” holding the fingers she has “worked to the bone” as Santa speeds away in his sleigh.
Some writers, however, rewarded hard work of Mrs. Christmas with a sleigh ride.
Georgia Gray’s 1874 short story “Mrs. Santa Claus’s Ride” allows Mrs. Natal ventures out alone, but only after Santa Claus – adamantly “a man who doesn’t defend a woman’s rights” – makes her promise not to be seen. To avoid questioning Santa’s authority or the belief that women’s place is in the home, the anonymous author of the 1880 short story “Mrs. Santa Claus’s Christmas-Eve” manufactures an emergency: Santa Claus left without some dollsso Mrs. Natal has to saddle Blitzen and deliver them.
Mrs. Christmas on the naughty list
Other writers were less willing to allow Mrs. Christmas left the house.
The negative portrayals of her Christmas Eve travels reflected the backlash against women’s demands for independence and voting. Most texts about Mrs. Christmas were written after the Civil War in the USA, alongside state and national efforts to grant women the right to vote.
Publications aimed at women did not necessarily defend more rights and political power. In 1871, the popular women’s magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book published an anti-suffrage petition addressed to Congress and signed by several prominent women, with Godey’s editor Sarah Hale encouraging readers to collect more signatures. Like the tale of Georgia Grey, the petition argued that the women’s place was at home and not in public.
The “Mrs. Santa Claus’s Adventure,” by Charles S. Dickinson, published in the December 1, 1871, issue of Wood’s Household Magazine, offered a tale of warning for disobedient wives. Refusing to believe that some children were too badly behaved to be visited, Mrs. Claus switches places with Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
But when she tries to go down the chimneys to deliver the gifts, she is attacked by “hateful little devils” that personify children’s “mean words and actions.” In describing Mrs. Claus’ defense of children as unrealistic and naive, Dickinson echoes anti-suffrage arguments that emphasized the dangers that awaited women who left the home.
MB Horton’s “A New Departure” took its title from the National Woman Suffrage Association’s failed strategy to register women to vote. The 1879 story – published, like the anti-suffrage petition, in Godey’s Lady’s Book – discredits women’s rights activists through its negative portrayal of Mrs. Natal, called “Mrs. Saint Nicholas” in this narrative.
Com Jealous of Santa Claus’s fameMrs. Saint Nicolas tries to deliver presents in his place, but her plot to usurp Santa’s role as gift giver fails when Santa tricks her into delivering a bag of useless and embarrassing goods.
Mrs. Christmas seems an unlikely target for anti-suffrage propaganda, but its association with the supreme domestic holiday made the idea of a Mrs. Independent Claus especially shocking.
“Good Santa” takes the reins
The 19th century writings about Mrs. Claus focused primarily on his work ethic and the possibility that this work will someday allow him to share Santa’s Christmas spotlight.
But scholar and suffragist Katharine Lee Bates, best known as the author of “America the Beautiful,” took a different approach: She gave Mrs. Christmas one own voice and personality.
Drawing on elements of previous Mrs. Claus literature, Bates’s “Goody Santa Claus on A Sleigh Ride” creates an outspoken Mrs. Claus who loves her job and her husband – and not willing to be left behind when Santa Claus makes his deliveries.
Just like the despondent Mrs. Burke’s Christmas, Bates’s Mrs. Claus – whose title, Goody, replaces “Mrs.” – begins his monologue with a question: Why does the Santa Claus gets “all the glory” while she “only has work”?
“Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh-Ride” first appeared in the children’s periodical Wide Awake. While the illustrations feature Mrs. Christmas as warm, grandmotherly, and non-threatening, Bates’s text reveals the power behind Goody’s meek exterior.
Most of the literature about Mrs. Natal highlights her domesticity, but Bates’ Goody is equally skilled at housework and outdoor tasks. While Santa snacks on Christmas treats and relaxes by the fireplace, Goody take care of the Christmas treesan orchard and plants that produce toys; he also raises cattle and takes on the risky task of chasing thunder to “make rockets with lightning”.
Although Santa allows Goody to walk by his side, her resume of work at the North Pole isn’t enough to convince him that she has enough “brains” to fill a stocking, and he fears that seeing her climb a chimney “shock your nerves”. Left alone on the roof while Santa Claus does his work, Mrs. Christmas is outside looking in as she peers through the skylight.
But holes in a poor child’s Christmas stockings stop Santa in his tracks: Sewing was Mrs. Claus’s department. Christmas. Seizing her chance to shine, Goody mends the sock, proving the value of women’s work and breaking Santa’s rules about climbing the chimney and filling your stockings.
The themes and plots of Ms. 19th-century Christmas – including sneaky sleigh rides – reappears in Mrs. Christmas to this day, and for good reason. Katharine Bates’s thunder-chasing, hat-wearing, sweet-talking Mrs. Claus—and the many other Mrs. Claus. Christmas that came before her – still represent every woman who ever dreamed of a little rest, a little recognition and a place on the sled.
