Father Christmas: Magic and Technology
Father Christmas is the last generally accepted domain of belief in miracles in today's world. Focused on his two most important functions, which are to collect children's wishlists and deliver presents in a single night, Santa Claus almost from the very start has used not only magic tricks, but has also adopted technologies from people. These technologies (like snail mail or sleigh), however, now seem outdated. In this study we examined hundreds of examples (postcards, films, tales, toys, games, etc.) demonstrating the use of new technologies by Santa Claus, Papá Noel, or Ded Moroz. In the 20th century the image of the wizard is often used to showcase the latest technology. The new trend to attribute Father Christmas's magical powers both in popular culture and by scientists to the use of uber-complex technologies both real-life and science fiction (drones, tensor cores, ion-shield of charged particles, curvature of the space-time continuum, etc.) is an interesting feature of today's technology-driven society. The article suggests that the emergence of the need to deprive even Father Christmas of magic can be accounted for by a simplification of cultural views, a departure from symbolic/figurative interpretation and an emergence of “post-logical” thinking that is unable to derive meaning from a magical story.