Santa Claus and White Supremacy
By: Sirius Naught
Tags: Cookies, Christmas, Holidays, Santa Claus, White Supremacy

Why we need to understand the striking resemblance between the two

Photo by Alicia Slough on Unsplash

As we near the Christmas season, we will undoubtedly be flooded with the usual sights and sounds of the holiday. Millions of kids worldwide will be looking forward to the 25th, and those who are young enough will, in addition, be looking forward to a visit from Santa.

We all have memories of staying up all night before Christmas day or spying on the Christmas tree when we were younger, with the hopes of catching a glimpse of that jolly fat man, ol’ Saint Nicholas. But what seems to be an innocent way to have fun and keep your kids behaved is all a cover for a dark reality. For when we truly investigate the American tradition of Santa Claus, we find disturbing ties to white supremacy and racism- callbacks to the US’ historical past which in many ways continues to thrive through to the present.

To understand these ties, let us first examine the mythology of Santa himself, and along the way we can see the comparisons to reality.

Santa Claus enters your house through your chimney. In order to bestow gifts and presents near one’s Christmas tree, children are told that Santa sneaks in through the chimney, undetected and unnoticed. Seems innocent and humorous, right? Wrong! What do this remind me of? Colonialism! When white people like Columbus (a major racist) came from the European countries to colonize native lands, it only resulted in the near genocide of many Natives there. But what would they tell the Natives? They would say that they were there to help these people! But did poor Pocahontas and Sacagawea know any better? Sadly no. But when we continue to propagate this idea that it is okay for a white stranger to barge into your land as long as they promise to give you “gifts”, we only serve to further the legacy of colonialism. Children leave cookies and milk for Santa to eat- this too is very problematic. This practice is a form of tribute, which can best be understood as a form of submission. Looking to historical examples for comparison, we can see that imperial nations often demanded tribute from conquered territories in exchange for safety, among other things. The relationship is clear: Santa is superior, and kids are inferior- just as captured states are inferior to their imperial overlords. Teaching kids to leave food for Santa is a way to brainwash them into submission, and creates an unhealthy dependency on one’s oppressors. Santa only gives you gifts if you have “behaved”: otherwise you get coal. When parents tell children this, they are essentially teaching them that they must conform to the parents’ standards of right and wrong. This is a form of control. Slave masters often used this sort of rhetoric to control the actions of those enslaved to them, since they were in the position of power. The enslaved understood that their livelihood depended on how their masters viewed them. As with point #2, this is another form of submission. Whether it’s slaves behaving to survive, the working class behaving for their wages, or kids behaving for gifts, the similarities are undeniable and ominous. Santa watches you even when you are sleeping. I don’t think that I need to elaborate much on this fact, for the stalker undertones are clear. All parents should be wary of teaching this to their children, especially their daughters. “No creepy white male stalkers allowed in this house” is what parents must have their kids understand.

THE SOLUTION: Now that we have identified the problems of Santa Claus and the disturbing messages of subservience in exchange for “gifts”, how should we reform this Christmas tradition in a way that guarantees equality, inclusiveness, and liberation from its racist mythology?

The answer is simple. Get rid of old white Santa Claus and replace him with a pansexual disabled woman of color, who, instead of giving gifts based on behavior, gives all children equal gifts no matter what. And we should tell children that she gives extra gifts to trans and non-binary children, for the struggles that they endure are harder than that of most other children today. We need a Santa that looks out for the marginalized, oppressed, and exploited in accordance with current progressive cultural beliefs (as well as one who looks like the marginalized and exploited). Then I will have no qualms about celebrating this annual event. Let these changes be a stepping stone towards a brighter tomorrow. I believe that we can and we must do this; our children and the future depend on us.