Although it doesn’t look like the original authors continued their Advent in Narnia series, I decided that I would. And with that, we will look at my favorite Christmas book (and movie) – The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. It turns out that C.S. Lewis’ inclusion of Father Christmas was criticized, even by Tolkien, as they thought it spoiled the magic of the world that was created. Regardless of how you feel about Father Christmas in Narnia, I wanted to show why I think he was included. We pick up in Chapter 10, when the Beavers gather Peter, Susan, and Lucy and flee towards Aslan’s camp, as they know the White Witch is on their trail.

It would have been a pretty enough scene to look at it through a window from a comfortable armchair; and even as things were, Lucy enjoyed it at first. But as they went on walking and walking – and walking – and as the sack she was carrying felt heavier and heavier, she began to wonder how she was going to keep up at all. And she stopped looking at the dazzling brightness of the frozen river with all its waterfalls of ice and at the white masses of the tree-tops and the great glaring moon and the countless stars and could only watch the little short legs of Mr. Beaver going pad-pad-pad-pad through the snow in front of her as if they were never going to stop. Then the moon disappeared and the snow began to fall once more. And at last Lucy was so tired that she was almost asleep and walking at the same time when suddenly she found that Mr. Beaver had turned away from the river-bank to the right and was leading them steeply uphill into the very thickest bushes.

Have you ever experienced some of Lucy’s feelings? I know I have, just not to the extent where I’m following Talking Animals running from an evil witch. Today is one of those days. The wind is swirling snow everywhere, and it is so very pretty – until I have to be outside and walk in it. Then, I gather my coat closer, pull my hat down further, and pull my scarf over my nose. I block out as much of the snow – and world – as I can and hurry on my mission. When you’re outside in it, it sometimes feels as if you’ll never make it inside before you freeze (a bit dramatic, but sometimes that’s how I feel). Just like Lucy, who stopped looking at the world around her and the beauty. She probably became disgruntled as the moon disappeared and the snow began again. Have you ever felt that way in life? Finally, Mr. Beaver brings them into a very uncomfortable and crude cave, where they find themselves the next morning.

It seemed to Lucy only the next minute (though really it was hours and hours later) when she woke up feeling a little cold and dreadfully stiff and thinking how she would like a hot bath. Then she felt a set of long whiskers tickling her cheek and saw the cold daylight coming in through the mouth of the cave. But immediately after that, she was very wide awake indeed, and so was everyone else. In fact they were all sitting up with their mouths and eyes wide open listening to a sound which was the very sound they’d all been thinking of (and sometimes imagining they heard) during their walk last night. It was a sound of jingling bells.

Mr. Beaver was out of the cave like a flash the moment he heard it. Perhaps you think, as Lucy thought for a moment, that this was a very silly thing to do? But it was really a very sensible one. He knew he could scramble to the top of the bank among bushes and brambles without being seen; and he wanted above all things to see which way the Witch’s sledge went. The others all sat in the cave waiting and wondering. They waited nearly five minutes. Then they heard something that frightened them very much. They heard voices. “Oh,” thought Lucy, “he’s been seen. She’s caught him!”

Just when you thought things were bad, they get worse. The Beavers and the three Pevensies trudged all night through the snow, sheltered in a crude cave, and now their enemy has caught up with them and taken their friend.

Great was their surprise when a little later they heard Mr. Beaver’s voice calling to them from just outside the cave.

“It’s all right,” he was shouting. “Come out, Mrs. Beaver. Come out, Sons and Daughters of Adam. It’s all right! It isn’t Her!”

The Pevensies and Mrs. Beaver leave the shelter of their cave, wondering who it could be and Peter exasperatedly voices this as he helps his sisters up the steep hill.

And on the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. He was a huge man in a bright red robe (bright as hollyberries) with a hood that had fur inside it and a great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest. Everyone knew him because, though you see people of his sort only in Narnia, you see pictures of them and hear them talked about even in our world-the world on this side of the wardrobe door. But when you really see them in Narnia it is rather different. Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.

“I’ve come at last,” said he. “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.”

And Lucy felt running through her that deep shiver of gladness which you only get if you are being solemn and still.

And here we see Father Christmas has arrived, not the jolly Santa that we know, but one who is solemn, real, and glad. Father Christmas goes on to provide presents for the Beavers and for the Pevensies. And the sword that Peter is given will be used later that day to save Susan and Lucy from the Witch’s wolves, although he doesn’t know it yet. The Pevensies don’t react like children usually do on Christmas. Instead, they become still, very glad, but also understand the gravity of the situation they find themselves in.

I think this is why C.S. Lewis included Father Christmas. It had been a very stressful night fleeing from the White Witch. The Pevensies and the Beavers realize they had been betrayed by Edmund, and now they had to try and get to Aslan before the White Witch could find them. They seemed to be in a hopeless situation, always expecting the White Witch to be around the next corner, and when they finally sheltered for the night, their spirits didn’t cheer much.

But, there is always a greater plan. The snowfall as they were traveling covered their tracks, making it very difficult for the White Witch to track and find them. And Father Christmas appeared at just the right time, to give them the strength, encouragement, and hope they would need to continue on their journey. He had finally been let in to Narnia, Aslan’s army strengthening and the White Witch’s power weakening. I think Father Christmas was placed in Narnia to remind us all that even though things may seem hopeless and dire, God will place someone (or something) in your life to help you on your journey, even though you may not realize it at the time.

“Didn’t I tell you,” answered Mr. Beaver, “that she’d made it always winter and never Christmas?”

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