Am I Racist if I Dream of a White Christmas?

Evidently writing about racism is like working for the CIA:  just when I thought I was done and out, they pull me back in.  Race, racism, race baiting, race profiling, race walking, race horses, race for the cure, emb-race the suck—enough already!  It’s time that we as a culture dug deep, looked within, and somehow found the strength to stop being so stupid.

The latest manufactured media hullabaloo is about the race of Santa Claus.  That’s right, Santa Claus.  And it all started with Slate blogger Aisha Harris.

Who?

Exactly.

Aisha got everybody riled up by saying that Santa should be a penguin.

A what?

Exactly.

According to Ms. Harris, Santa is too white; he’s not black enough.  (Never mind that he spends all year at the North Pole—not exactly a prime tanning region.)  The obvious solution to Ms. Harris is to turn him into a penguin, so he’s both black and white.  Easter has a bunny, she says, so why not have a Christmas penguin?  I’ll tell you why not: It’s true that penguins are black and white, but that’s all.  What about red, yellow, brown, etc.?

Conclusion?  Ms.  Harris evidently thinks that black and white are the only races that matter, i.e., Ms. Harris is a racist.  The only logical solution I can see to this very pressing non-issue is to invent a Christmas Chameleon, a creature that is or can be any and all colors of the multi-cultural spectrum.  He could slither down the chimney and bring all the sensitive boys and girls some Ritalin.  Except he couldn’t be a ‘he’ as that would exclude all the ‘shes,’ so the chameleon would have to be gonochorous.  (Say, wasn’t that a Boy George song in the 80s?  “Gono-gono-gono-gono-chorous-chame-le-on.  Red, gold, and green…”)

Picture it: the children are all nestled, snug in their beds on Christmas Eve straining and hoping to hear through the gently falling snow the muffled jingle of bells that would foretell an imminent visit by the All-inclusive Rainbow-hued Asexual Christmas Chameleon.

If that doesn’t say “Christmas” I don’t know what does.  At least the gay yuletides would be happy.

To be sure, we can’t take what Ms. Harris said too seriously, as her Santa Penguin is just an obvious ploy to break into the what’s-black-and-white-and-red-all-over riddle industry.  But what about the enraging response to Harris’ piece by ace Fox News reporter Megyn Kelley?  What are we to make of that?  And perhaps a better question: Why do people get so upset by a woman who can’t even spell ‘Megan’?

Mys. Kelley had a 15-minute segment on her show about Santa’s race that incensed a number of people because she said flat out that Santa was white.   And all of this is on the heels of a New Mexico teacher being suspended for saying as much to one of his black students.  Now I’m no rocket surgeon, but I’m a little confused as to what exactly the controversy is.  Sure, these insensitive sycophants should know better than to echo things they have been taught repeatedly and known their entire lives through books, advertising and animagic TV specials, but wasn’t the whole point of Ms. Harris’ blog that Santa is too white?  And now people are getting in trouble for saying that Santa is white?  Aren’t they agreeing with her?  Are we supposed to not agree with her?  And could it be that the entire purpose of this controversy is simply to get bloggers to use their italics button?

After doing extensive research on this topic, I discovered something that the key players in this controversy might not know, and I’ll whisper it in case there are some readers who also may not know—or even want to know—but…

Santa Claus is a fictional character.

It’s true (although that doesn’t seem to matter much anymore).  Pardon my old-fartiness self disclosure, but this whole thing harkens back to when Dan Quayle was attacking Murphy Brown, also a fictional character.  And as far as I know, the race of other fictional characters has never been questioned.  Do people argue about the race of Othello or Ulysses or The Simpsons?  Of course not.

Santa Claus is white.  But let me be perfectly clear: in saying this I am agreeing with everyone involved and therefore cannot be attacked for racism or insensitivity.  Santa Claus is a distortion of Sinterklaas, who is a derivative of Saint Nicholas, who was Greek.  And we all know that we couldn’t let Santa be totally Greek because then everyone would be upset with him over his incessant smoking and financial irresponsibility and feta breath.  (Okay, now you may attack me for racism and insensitivity.)

I suppose another reason people are so upset with Mygyn Kylly is because she stated in the same segment that Jesus, too, was white—at which point it was just becoming obvious that she was assuming Santa and Jesus were employees of Fox News.  This statement prompted such outrage that The Washington Post went so far as to take “a factual approach” to the statement, “interviewing religious scholars about the long debate over the race of Jesus.”  Religious scholars love debates like this because it forces them to root out the justification for their tenure.  I’m actually more than a little curious how long this debate has been going on since every historical source we have says quite plainly that Jesus was Jewish.  But whatever.

I can’t help but think these ‘controversies’ would go away if instead of trying to make the likes of Jesus and Saint Nicholas out to be more like us, we were to work equally hard to make ourselves out to be more like them.

151 thoughts on “Am I Racist if I Dream of a White Christmas?”

  1. Maybe if the penguin vomited blood on his upper third and peed himself on his lower third…
    Anyway, Glen Beck copied you on his radio program today. But he didn’t have nearly as good a conclusion.

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  2. You had me at your title. Yes, I too heard Glen Beck’s radio program. Santa had little melanin in his skin. Jesus had olive-colored skin, so he had a bit more melanin. Has it come down to this? It’s really about how much melanin we have showing? Maybe the real issue is not color, but culture. I’m so glad you take a humorous approach to this topic, cuz I get a bit frazzaled about labeling people based on how light or dark brown they are.
    Ee Gats!?

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    • I KNOW. Just think about how a kid is going to react when he sees TWO Santas on television. What are we supposed to tell the kids? that’s not confusing at all.Oh, I got one. We can say Santa has an African American brother who has flown in from the North Pole.

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  4. I am so delighted I found this post! The fact that anyone would waste time on the skin color of personalities so incredibly distorted over hundreds and thousands of years anyway is insane. What passes as journalism today is very, very sad.

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  7. HAHAHA, oh I’m laughing out loud at work. Feta breath, race of the Simpsons. I love this entire article. I haven’t read the comments but I’m hoping someone gets mad at you because it would make this article that much more fun. Thank you for this article and your point at the end about how these controversies would probably go away if we stopped harping on this stuff. The people who rant and rave about racism tend to be the most racist people I know. I really don’t care if you’re purple. Do we have the same sense of humor and do you like beer? That’s about all I ask for.
    Again, thanks for this hilarious post and I’m so glad they freshly pressed you. I was getting tired of reading about how everyone is a racist :p

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  8. Slightly disappointed that there isn’t anyone on here yet raving about how racist you are for writing this but I’m enjoying the comments and glad to see there are still laid back people with a good head on their shoulders. Time for people to iron their bunched up panties.

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  12. Thank you for your great article! I have come to America, land of the Free, to find: censorship on TV and radio; the expression politically correct; and a general fear to say what you think. I have the feeling there is no common sense left, just plain, authentic common sense. We don’t say the F word, N word, B word, H word, as if just labeling them differently makes them disappear. Hypocrisy took over democracy.

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  13. “Do people argue about the race of Othello or Ulysses or The Simpsons?”

    Maybe the last one; I’ve heard a lot of remarks about their yellow skin. Speaking of which, anime tends to lead to quite a bit of those arguments.

    I wonder what would happen if all this hubbub over race labels was directed towards actually racist policies like the War on Drugs.

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  14. You know, since Santa is an invention anyway, each ethnic or special interest group should just invent their own. Delivering 16 trillion One Direction dolls obviously requires a team effort. There could be a black Santa, an Asian Santa, a Latino Santa, a Native American Santa, a gay Santa, a divorced Santa, a Santa with PTSD, and un uptight self-righteous Santa who only visits the Real Americans.

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  16. I didn’t think there were penguins at the North pole… or are we moving Santa’s HQ to the South Pole now? I guess we could make Santa a Polar Bear, they live at the North Pole.

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  20. Well stated piece, and well written. 🙂 ‘Preciated the chance to read it, and I agree with your final assessment whole heartedly — “instead of trying to make the likes of Jesus and Saint Nicholas out to be more like us, we were to [and should] work equally hard to make ourselves out to be more like them.”

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  23. I can see Ms Harris’s point, to a degree. It’s unfortunate that even as America is growing in diversity, white skin is considered a ‘default’. Unless told otherwise, characters, people, etc, are assumed to be white. But it has been shown to cause self-esteem issues in children to be surrounded by images that don’t look like themselves.

    However, Santa Claus has a rather long history stemming from European tradition. And people have a tendency to make their mythological figures look, y’know, like themselves. No one complains Brahma is depicted as Indian…

    So I agree with the general complaint that too many characters in popular culture that are white, with no real *need* to have to be. But I also see that Santa isn’t a modern creation, he’s a historical creation, and we shouldn’t *have* to change historical figures “just because”.

    But that teacher is also whacked for telling a student they couldn’t be Santa. He *is* fictional. Just because he’s always depicted as white doesn’t mean a black kid can’t be Santa.

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  25. I really don’t care what race Santa is. He’s just an icon for Christmas, he’s not even real. Some people rant about the race of Jesus occasionally but who cares? No body from this time was around when Jesus lived so no body would know what race he is actually so who should care?

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  27. The problem here is the 24 hour news cycle. Insignificant things like this get picked up and drawn out and beaten with a stick for hours on end. I didn’t read the initial piece because I don’t care but I think there was a point in there where the author tied it to feeling alienated growing up. Mgyen Keeiy (thought I’d follow your lead and put random words together that are close to her name) is a moron, but not for what she said about this.

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  28. I’m not sure why anyone feels the need to argue over what race Santa is or should be. He’s just a fictional character who because of the area of the world his story originated in ages ago is portrayed as white. On the other hand, if someone wants to make a picture, figure, or doll of Santa that happens to be of some other race, I don’t see why anyone should be upset. It’s not important enough to argue about. Jesus was Jewish, no one should need to argue that. Your last sentence is so true. We shouldn’t use the season to focus on how others are different from us – we should use it to remind ourselves to be kinder and more generous to all our fellow humans.

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  29. Does that mean that I’m a racist for singing “May your days be merry and bright, and may all your grandchildren be white”? No, it just means I have a warped sense of humor. I didn’t LMAO at this post, but I did LOL at it.

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      • I guess I think of that joke as being just absurd, in the same vein as:
        Q.: What does a deaf, dumb and blind kid get for Christmas?
        A.: (A specific horrible) disease.
        Of course, one doesn’t hope for the disadvantaged child to get more bad luck, it just is the joke, that obviously he’d get more bad luck. I’m trying to think of a place where the “may all your grandchildren be white” thing would legitimately work, and about all I can think of is the old “All in the Family”, if Archie had stuttered and stammered to his black neighbor about how he wasn’t against interracial marriage, just felt that the grandkids would have a tough time of it, and his black neighbor had ended the discussion by singing that to him. Yeah, probably wouldn’t have worked there either.
        More importantly, though, if a joke needs to be explained, it’s a) probably not all that funny, b) probably stupid, and c) perhaps offensive. So, although it’s your choice, I’d vote for deleting my comments here. I don’t mean to offend on other people’s blogs, just on my own, which is rapidly petering out due to lack of interest on my part. I do try to only offend wealthy people, arrogant people, or talentless celebs, not people of different races or lifestyles, but it’s my blog, and I’m sure some people are offended at times. But, yeah, if I had nothing to really offer with my comments here, then there’s no reason to have my comments here. But it’s your choice. Have a nice holiday season.

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      • I appreciate your comments and would like to leave them for discussion. I for one am an equal opportunity offender; I believe stuff and so I say things. I am much more interested in free speech than I am whether or not some hypersensitive whinerson is upset at what is said. As ‘Grasping for words’ said above, time to iron out your panties.

        But there is also a respect issue in play; there are times we should censor ourselves out of respect for the hearer, which I will do on a rare occasion. Anybody else want to jump in here? Anyone? Bueller?

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  32. St. Nicholas was Italian? He may have had a dark complexion.. not sure. But he was probably whiter than a black or brown skinned person. Santa Claus was white.. he really was, but he can become any other color is the child or family wishes (and speak different languages according to the MIRACLE ON 34th STREET movie.)

    Now Jesus was Jewish and they all have dark complexions- as do most Mediterranean races. My own half Jewish cousin has a much darker complexion than the rest of us cousins, but he isn’t considered light brown by any means.

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  34. If people could truly find something worthwhile to get upset about these days this world may stop going to hell in a hand basket. Why does it matter and why does anyone give it attention? Are we that stupid that we accept and react to this nonsense and call it news? It’s all nonsense yet this crap is what I read and hear on legitimate news stations. It’s not news it’s filler crap to keep tensions high and to keep people apart. To get everyone’s backs up and make hate more important that love. It’s an ugly road we are choosing when we give hate more coverage than good.

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  38. All this political correctness drives me crazy. OK, sure, some things are important and need to be addressed. Like – why are people of colour so under-represented on TV? That kind of thing. But questioning the colour of Santa? Well heck, he can only be one colour, and since he was based off a person who was pretty much white, that’s what we’ve got!

    In Australia, we’ve got the beguiling situation of having our Fairy Penguins renamed to Little Penguins because somehow, by some wild stretch of the imagination, it was offensive to gay people to call them Fairy Penguins. THEY’RE NOT GAY PENGUINS! There’s no insinuation that they’re gay, no connection to the gay community at all except that the latter have decided to “claim” the word fairy.

    /rant.

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  40. And all of this is on the heels of a New Mexico teacher being suspended for saying as much to one of his black students.

    From what I read of that news, the teacher told him, “You can’t wear that hat! Don’t you know Santa Claus is white?” Why can’t he wear that hat? I had a gig as a mall Santa once. What I saw was people that believed in Santa as a symbol of cheer, and goodwill. My daughter got to sit in my lap when she was little, and we still have a photo of that. She caught on fast in later years, so it was pretty easy to say then, “Yes, my daughter, Santa is me.” Don’t people do that for family and friends when they take on the role of Santa? I mean, like, secret Santa gift exchanges at work, as well as presents at home.

    If only I could have been there. I would have told that student, “Forget him– wear that hat. You, too, can be Santa.”

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    • On the surface, that teacher was out of line. But I am jaded enough to realize that ‘news’ organizations rarely report what actually happened and never report context. What was their relationship before the incident? What was the conversation? Unfortunately answering such questions takes research, something journalists scoff at these days. And if such questions were answered, it probably wouldn’t be news.

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      • Indeed. It seems we’re quick to judge when we don’t know the full story. Sadly, I’ve read that such is typical of the history of journalism (e.g., that 20th-century objectivism was an abberation), but I think your point on context is a valid, even salient one.

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  41. i love teh way you have turned around that Ms Harris is a racist as only cares about black’s and White.. I think the whole ‘racist’ card is played to much these days.. can’t everyone just crack on and stop being so idle?

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  42. You may find this YouTube video interesting: What did Jesus Christ look like?

    Well, his ancestors were out of Egypt and Jesus was Jewish and lived in the Middle East.

    The video pulled a few scenes from a Discovery Channel film.

    Or this segment from another YouTube account:

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  44. Dude this is friggin awesome looool the asexual chameleon . Wow!! Defo gonna share this on my FB and u are so right what the hell with the race issue!? Leave Santa as a white dude , no one is bothered – this coming from a black dude ! Nice one , hilarious read

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  46. The character of Santa Claus derives, if you go back far enough, from the Norse god Heimdallr. Heimdallr, like all the Æsir, was ethnically European. Christmas itself originated as a Pagan European festival called Yule. This is OUR heritage.

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  47. I’m feeling the poor elves are neglected in this terribly critical debate (or might they really be Gnomes who diet well or perhaps they’re really dwarves who are vertically stunted…D&D fans – please weigh in on this technicality). Let’s not joke – THEY make Santa who he is. So who’s worrying about their pigmentation? And more importantly, about their labor rights?

    While Rankin & Bass didn’t portray any EoC (Elves of Color) in Rudolph, there’s GOT to be at least one non-white toy-making organism up there, right? It’s a manual labor job, which as any economist or sociologist will attest with hard data, minorities dominate manual labor work in the Northern hemisphere. So we’ve not, for example, a single Inuit elf in the whole joint who moved further north to escape depleted job prospects in the Canadian or Alaskan frontier? C’mon! I’m offended Santa’s the focus by our media. He’s a figure-head. Look hard at the worker-bees behind the jolly fella’.

    If I were Matthew McConaughey reprising his character Jake Brigance and giving closing arguments in court to defend the elves, he’d ask us to close our eyes. Then he’d tell you to imagine tiny hands assembling wooden trains and cloth dolls for 14 hours while being forced to eat diabetes-causing sugar cookies, sing silly songs, sweating and getting nothing but verbal “Ho-Ho-Ho’s” for pay. Jake would ask us in a Cajun drawl, “Can ya’ see them? Can ya’ smell their sugah sweat and frustrashun? Can ya’ hear the forced, nervous laughter as the tick-tock of Christmas Eve approaches? Can ya’ hear the click and pop in their fingah joints? Do ya’ see them?” Then Jake would ask us to imagine the elves…

    …as your kids.

    So while Santa’s pigmentation is really ticking off People With Too Much Voice, and we propagate the need to focus on such idiocy, consider the elves. And if you say elves are a non-issue, then Santa’s color is also a non-issue. ‘Cuz without the elves, there’s no Santa.

    Court adjourned.

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  48. I read your post and found it thoughtful and interesting. I recently did a series of posts about our Christmas traditions where they came from. I do understand why Kelly would say Santa is white and I do understand the blogger’s POV however if the blogger knew how Santa Claus came about she would understand why he is soooo white. I am not it is accurate today but how we got here. As for Jesus, I am not going to talk it now.

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  51. Oh my gosh, this is hilariously true! While I know that race is a touchy subject, this writing made me smile throughout the whole entire thing because of its great points. I especially enjoyed your chameleon – the perfect Santa! Great work, really, this is truly profound!

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  52. Interesting take.

    It is my contention that folks get mired down in the lower realms of thought, because it is easier to do that than to direct the focus and intellectual capital on the issues that matter. And… In the same breath, sometimes complex issues are dumbed down in an attempt to manufacture discord.

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  53. Oh for pete sake. Who cares what color Santa is? He’s not real! He can be whatever color you like him to be. As for Jesus. He was a 1st Century Jew. He probably looked very similar to the people of the Middle East today. Great post by the way.

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  57. It’s too bad the Chic-fi-la Santa cow is affiliated with such an offensive entity, he would be a perfect alternative to a white Santa. Wait, a cow would certainly offend lactose intolerant folks, but they should really try being more tolerant anyway.

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  59. I think too many people are way too pc these days, and forget to voice their real opinions.
    In the places like the UK, I think it is absurd that people have to say “happy holidays,” instead of “merry Christmas,” since it is a Christian country, and one of the traditions of the country. And many people forget that Christmas was originally about Jesus, and not about materialism, but Christmas has become so watered down, it has lost most of it’s original meaning for most people.

    I do not see how this modern version of Christmas should or would offend anyone. I even know Muslims that celebrate it, and some of them have no problem with the words “merry Christmas.” Trust me.

    And, by the way, there are light skinned Jews, and Jesus was one of them. We depict Him accurately in Orthodox icons. For example, there is the icon made without hands. It’s very real indeed!
    Anne Frank was quite fair, but with dark hair.

    But calling someone the n word, or not treating people equally because of their skin color or ethnicity, is ridiculous. We are all children of God. There is no need for that. We are all people at the end of the day.

    God bless.

    Btw, funny post!

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    • Thanks for your comments, OC. Some wise words. 2 things: I don’t think people ‘forget’ to voice their opinions, I think they are afraid to. The pc shame machine is alive and well. Also, while Jesus may have been a ‘light skinned Jew’ as you say, to claim it as unqualified fact is 1) unprovible and b) pointless.

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  61. So what about Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) in Holland. Should the UN brand Holland as racist if they continue to use him as Santa’s helper? I wonder… Or perhaps the Toowoomba sports stand should be re-named Nigger Brown after the original ES Brown, who was nicknamed Nigger. Perhaps Coon cheese should be next on the list. Hey! Why just stop at Santa??? Isn;t it all a little silly. Tony

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  62. I never taught my children to believe in Santa as I thought it was a form of brainwashing. When my children ask me why is he white? I told them the truth as I know it …” that that is just the way it is….and has been”. There wasn’t like an official vote on who would get the role of Santa…it was just said and done….I told them it doesn’t matter because he is not real anyway. So they never gave Santa any thought growing up. They knew the reason for the season and they knew the truth that family was the ones bearing the gifts.

    Does it really matter what color Santa is he is just make believe?

    What matters is that you tell your children the truth that Santa is make believe. Children must learn to discern fact from fiction.

    What matters is that your children learn to love themselves and others no matter race they are.

    What matters is that you teach your children they can be who they want to be ( in a Santa’s hat, Teacher, Doctor, Astronaut) in this life no matter what color skin they are in. Be proud and embrace who you are.

    With everything there is freedom of choice to believe or not to believe everything that society teaches you or shows you.

    All you see in life is not what life is truly about. Never believe what is popular belief always verify and seek the truth.

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  64. 😂😂😂 as much as I would love to say these race debates are America’s problem I cannot hide from the fact the South Sudan is in civil unrest over tribal hate and other nations kill over being Sunni or Shia….so we hate coz we want to hate and we will always find a spec to hate over!!! It’s not about white to albino Santa but just hating on loving Santa!!! Jesus lived out in the desert…He had a serious tan…looked more like a dark Arab than American Jew…!! Never seen Him but high possibility!! But love that you end with saying…let’s work to be like them not be their race…that never helped anyone!! It surely didn’t save anyone one from white Hitler….😏

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      • ‘No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.’
        Nelson Mandela

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  65. Pingback: Freshly Riffed 61: This Is It, Boys, This Is War | A VERY STRANGE PLACE

  66. Love the crap out of this.
    As optimisticgladness said, its really not about color. If it was, Beyonce wouldn’t qualify as black. Its about culture…somehow. I’m not sure why people get so uppity about race. Sure, America has a history that includes slavery and segregation and ignorance and prejudice. But that’s over and now we’re all just obsessively clinging to guilt and the idea that everybody really really needs to embrace the so-called “black culture” of shameless promiscuity, twerking, and weaving skittles wrappers into hair. I would like to call that “sick” culture or “silly” culture. It certainly isn’t right to reduce black people’s heritage to that, and its unnecessary to apologize that a lot of American cultural heritage is European. A good societal idea (like the basic Roman justice system) is a good idea. The principle of ubuntu from African tribal culture is also a good idea. Don’t matter what shade of brown the person who came up with it was.
    And if you want a bad idea, that would be constantly reducing people to their “race” and “sexual orientation.” Causes division and hatred *shock* and that can’t be solved by making the symbol of Christmas a penguin. If Ms. Harris has such a problem with whites, why not propose reinstating the original symbol of Christmas: an olive-skinned Jewish man?

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  67. Also something interesting: in the Christian/Catholic tradition, both Jesus and his Mother Mary are not restrained to one race in relIgious art. Look at the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who appeared as an Aztec princess. You can find black Madonna and Child paintings, Asian apparitions of Our Lady, Inuit images of Jesus, and yes, countless Old Master paintings of them with Dutch or Italian or French facial features and blond hair ….why? Because the message of the religion is meant for all peoples, regardless of culture. That’s part of the Gospels that stand at Christianity’s heart. Jesus while on earth may have appeared to be a Jewish man, but that is far from all he was. Santa Claus, on the other hand, was simply a cultural legend based off of Saint Nicholas. Its okay for a product of Dutch culture to be white. Shhhh, little liberals, there there. What if we made a white Uncle Remus?

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  68. So, I have decided this topic makes me giggle. It doesn’t make me depressed, angry or offended. It is just plain and simple what the problem is. Most of you who replied to this topic have said, “There are better things to rant and worry about.” Unfortunately, America stopped worrying about the important topics many years ago. So, this is what you get folks. You are now in a world where the only topics who catch attention are ignorant ones. Deal with it. You can’t change the inevitable, so get the pole out of your anus.
    First, I would like to tell you MY opinion. This entire “Santa is assumed white” topic is not about Jesus or publicity. It is about African Americans finding a way to pin down Caucasians—for the hundredth time. African Americans will forever be after the “white people” for what “they went through” many years ago. This article was just another stunt to tackle the Caucasian population. The author knew what this article would cause and she knew exactly who she was targeting. It is just another racist act put on for the world to outrage about. If she was aiming to have two Santa figures broadcasted on every channel, then she may be in for trouble. He is a magical figure made to make kids happy and explore their imagination. I can’t wait to see how a kid reacts when they see two Santas. Maybe we can start a new tradition. Maybe we can say Santa has an African American brother who has flown in from the North Pole in 2014. Sure, that is definitely not confusing. (Her rant is pointless to say the least)

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  71. Thank-you for the article. It has been quite an interesting read. As a mom of two I have actually told my boys the truth about the history of Santa and that he did wonderful things for boys and girls who were in need, and that people today still try an emulate him during the holiday season by dressing up as him, as a way to explain why people look like a fat guy in a red suit and to not lie to them. It is quite interesting what happens when people are honest with their kids about things like Santa Clause, tooth fairy, Easter bunny, etc.

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  72. An “Imminent visit by the All-inclusive Rainbow-hued Asexual Christmas Chameleon.” HA! Loved it. I cannot believe that this topic was/is so heated with people. Growing up I remember our church had an african american Santa. I looked up at him confused and He told me, “it’s hard to stay white when you’re jumping down chimneys all over the world.” 😉 This piece is very written especially your ending line. I very much agree!

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  76. I think that children of color may look at Santa and think, “Why is he white?”. I mean as you said he is a fictional character, so there really is no reason why he can’t be black, or Asian, or Indian, or Native American, no matter what he was originally based off of. However, you can get Santa figures in many different ethnicity’s. I really think that what a lot of people are looking for is a colored Santa in the media. There’s no reason why the next Christmas blockbuster couldn’t portray a Santa of any color. It may seem like a small thing but kids look up to Santa, and I think that he should be portrayed in many ways.

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    • I do agree though, that it’s certainly not something to be really upset about. Let people portray Santa in anyway that they want because in the end he symbolizes so much for children, and that’s not going to change no matter what he looks like.

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  78. The story of Santa is a good one. When its comes to Christmas and Santa – Racism is not a subject that is either popular or talked about much. That said, some people, with different mind sets, will of course bring up the racism topic, and begin shouting out aloud for attention.

    In my view, Christmas is not only about Santa, but about family, spending time together, enjoying each others company and sharing love. In my world, at that time of the year, racism isn’t a topic.

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    • “…some people, with different mind sets, will of course bring up the racism topic, and begin shouting out aloud for attention.”

      You have exercised violence upon the proverbial head of the nail with this statement, as it is the entire point of this ‘controversy’: “Look at me! I need ratings! (Read my blog!)”

      “Christmas is not only about Santa, but about family, spending time together, enjoying each others company and sharing love.” Something may be missing here, however.

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