[His] ritual location in the semi-public space of garden or field imaginatively reinforces a spatial social system, marking women's proper sphere as the domestic-private and men's as the commercial-public. It presents an image, however jocular, of a masculine control of public space. ... Like Father Christmas, he is round, fat and smiling, suggesting overindulgence. The classic carnival figure is a fat, lusty eater and drinker."
Indeed.