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Level 1: Characters in a fantastical setting with no clear analogue of any real-world culture or religion celebrate Christmas; the implications of this are never examined
Level 2: Characters in a fantastical setting celebrate a secular, non-denominational mid-winter holiday which just coincidentally involves many of the same rituals and observances as Christmas
Level 3: Characters in a fantastical setting celebrate a mid-winter holiday commemorating an invented folk-hero whose mythos furnishes elaborate alternative explanations for various Christmas observances
Level 4: Characters in a fantastical setting celebrate Christmas because in spite of the setting’s history otherwise bearing no resemblance to that of Earth, for some reason Catholicism still exists
Level 5: Whatever C S Lewis was on
CS Lewis said “it’s fantasy and I can do whatever” and if that means Santa shows up to give gifts, then Santa shows up! 😇
And then someone has to restrain Tolkien from shanking him or something like it.
While this is a fun meme, it badly mischaracterises Lewis’ attitude toward speculative worldbuilding. Prior to The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis was best known as an author of theological science fiction, and he carries that approach forward to Narnia. Indeed, that’s why he was famously so hostile to allegorical readings: Narnia is situated within a multiversal Creation in which God the Son incarnates to deliver salvation to each world in a form suited to that particular world’s idiom – it’s unnecessary to interpret Aslan as a symbol for anything, because textually he literally is the second Person of the Holy Trinity incarnated in a form suited to a world of funny talking animals. Heck, there’s even a complicated theological explanation for the lamp-post.
Granted, I’m sure Lewis was having fun with Santa Claus popping up in Narnia to give people magic swords for Christmas, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t also massively overthinking it. He and Tolkien were much more alike than I suspect either man would readily admit!
I don’t think they would have had that much an issue with each other. They liked each other well enough that Tolkein put Lewis in his trilology as a walking talking tree man. For tolkein, could there be a higher compliment? That man loved his trees
Well, yes, but I meant “more alike than […] either man would readily admit” specifically with respect to speculative worldbuilding; their disagreements regarding the “correct” way to go about constructing fantastical worlds were famously vocal, though reports that they nearly ended their friendship over it are (probably) exaggerated.
I like how Christmas exists prior to Aslan’s sacrifice and resurrection.
Which has the obvious implication that Aslan just allows himself to be killed every so often.
Oddly, the celebration of Christmas in Narnia has nothing to do with Aslan. The institution exists because Narnia’s first King was a time-travelling cab driver from 19th Century England.
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