Why Can't Santa Be White?

Why can't an imaginary being be any color we want? I will never understand why this is a topic of discussion. So what if some people want Santa to have the same ethnic background as they do, nothing wrong with that.

I don't actually know of a single person that is actually offended by the color choices. I have heard a few references to an offended straw man or two but actual humans? haven't found one.

The Santa we celebrate today is white, sorry I just can't get past, that anyone could see him any differently. I agree that we don't try to change other fictional characters, so why should Santa be changed. I honestly think there is an issue when every tradition around has to be changed so we don't offend anyone. Merry Christmas...now is Happy Holiday's, these are traditions that go back more years then we have all (not collectively) been alive.

Santa's mall helpers, are Santa's connection to the kids, that's what my kids have always been told, his rep's can be any color they want to be, but the real ideal of Santa is a jolly fat man, no where is anyone getting upset that he is fat and unhealthy. I mean let's be honest isn't that a bigger problem, or how about the fact that we leave this unhealthy fat man milk and cookies....cause you know, he really needs another cookie right?

Doesn't that sound incredibly.....ridiculous. So is trying to change the standing idea of who Santa is.

Santa isn't real so he can be whatever race/ethnicity you imagine. Why does he have to be White? White is not the default for all things. Regardless, the man in the red suit is Santa.

Well I'm Jewish (which means that I have "white privilege" in North America but not in most other parts of the world, but that's a different story), so I have no stake in Santa. However, I can tell you with confidence that the problem is the implication that Santa HAS to be white. Santa is the stuff of children's magical dreams. If some children imagine him as white -- great, wonderful, terrific. If other children imagine him looking more like their own (non-white) grandpas, then their imaginings should flourish too. Saying that those children are wrong and Santa HAS to be white, because of an illustration developed in 1823, when slavery was the law of half the land -- that's some pretty hard-core racism there.

You -- I, we, all of us -- we have to be able to do better than that, come on.

i can't figure out why it's so important for you that a mythical character be restricted to one color. since we know that santa has a historical nugget of truth at the base of his myth, why is it that it makes people so angry that his 'ethnicity' can have some variance?
that chick is a wack-job. even more than her white santa (and jesus…hee!) rant, i was held spellbound in horrified fascination while she got red-faced and livid over being 'forced' to drive her children around in 'search of' nativity scenes (like they're hard to find?) and having to 'look around' a festivus pole of made of beer cans.
the idea that santa is usually depicted as white and IS therefore white perpetuates the not-so-subtle undertone that lingers in our society of white preferentialism. i'm glad it's getting challenged.
khairete
decidedly white S.

No one is sayng that Santa CAN'T be white, only that it isn't necessary that he MUST be white.

If a kid is still naive enough to believe that a fat man in a red suit riding a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer enters the home of every child on the planet in one night, wihtout ever setting off a burglar alarm, and leaves toys for them, why would it be a stretch to believe that he can change his skin color at will to match that of the child he's delivering toys to?

ETA: Megan, my Caucasian child sat in the laps of Asian , HIspanic, and black Santas. The first time she encountered a non-white Santa, she asked me how come he was brown. I told her that because Santa was a magcal being, he could be any color he wanted to on any given day, and that this particular day, he must have decided he wanted to be brown. It made perfect sense to her.

Santa Claus as we know him today was derived not only from St. Nicholaus, but also from the Dutch Sinterklaas. You might find it interesting to know that Sinterklaas is traditionally accompanied by his helper, Black Pete.

Black Pete is depicted by a young boy (either black or in blackface) who helps Sinterklaas carry candy for the good children and willow switches for the bad children. Children used to be told that Black Pete would take them to Spain if they were bad.

I love some of these stories. They'r fascinating and rather amusing, and they comprise ALL of our histories. There's no reason to be offended by history.

ETA: Your question: "Why is this a problem for some?"

Because some people like to make things a problem. They believe that being offended makes them of higher moral character.

I think the issue is that the default option for fictional characters in our society is white (and in many cases male as well). Despite much progress in many areas, minorities (and women) still look around and see very few faces who look like them in fairy tales, stories and advertising (certainly tv commercials do show many more black consumers than they used to but that is very recent). When I (happily very rarely) go to Toy R Us - I see white Barbie and white dolls (yes, I know they make dolls of color and even boy dolls, but they certainly are not in the eye level displays if an individual store carries them at all).

When a character's race in no way affects the story line - why shouldn't that character be depicted in a way that reflects overall society? I suspect many of the people who just know Santa is white, would be horrified if he spoke with a 'foreign' accent (because I am pretty sure he is not American).

And why does the Easter Bunny need to be male? Because as I suspect Megyn Kelly will let us know this Spring, he just is.

ETA -all children see colors. Just like they all see gender -even though it is so ingrained in us that we no longer see the biases. It's not just Santa Claus. It's seeing doctors and lawyers and astronauts that look like them. Best predictor of girls pursuing math or science - knowing/seeing a woman doing that job. I assume it is the same for race.

Um, why do you think Santa has to be one race at all ... Especially if Santa is mythical and magical?

"For those that want their kids to believe in the magic of Santa for even a short time, Santa would kind of need to stay the same race he has always been."

I'm sorry, but that's a pretty silly comment. You're saying that Santa is magical, but he can't change his appearance.

Our 7 year old has been asking a lot of questions about Santa this year, especially as he watches Christmas movies. It's normal for kids to ask how Santa gets down a chimney, how Santa delivers presents to a house that doesn't have a fireplace, etc. Each Christmas movie carries a different explanation. It actually has made our job easier. I told him, "No one actually knows the truth, so when they make a movie they create a new explanation." In "The Santa Clause" Santa becomes super skinny and enters the house through a pipe. In "Arthur Christmas" the latest sleigh is a ship the size of a small village, and thousands of elves actually deliver the presents. Santa is more of a figure head that delivers one or two presents.

If kids can believe in the magic of Santa and wonder how he gets into the house, why can't they believe that Santa takes on the race of the child/children who live in that house?

Yes, the whole question is silly for adults to argue about. It's also infantile to go on Fox News and tell the world that Santa is white, deal! And her "apology" was defensive. It was pathetic for her to declare that Santa is white and then get upset because people are "attacking" her and "attacking" Fox News.

Sad.

What is offensive isn't the idea that Santa has been depicted as white for so long, but that the idea of changing it is vehemently opposed by some people, as if other races aren't good enough.

ETA: This is coming from someone who DOES watch Fox News nightly, and typically agrees with Megyn Kelly.

The trouble here is you have merging/converging folklore.

You have:

1) Saint Nicholas of Myra was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now Demre) in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey.

2) Germanic paganism, Odin - The god Odin's role during the Yuletide period has influenced concepts of St. Nicholas in a variety of ways, including his long white beard and his gray horse for nightly rides Sleipnir, which was traded for reindeer in North America.

3) Dutch folklore - In the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, Saint Nicholas ("Sinterklaas", often called "De Goede Sint"—"The Good Saint") is an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long, full beard. He wears a long red cape or chasuble over a traditional white bishop's alb and sometimes red stola, dons a red mitre, and holds a gold-coloured crosier, a long ceremonial shepherd's staff with a fancy curled top. To administer the distribution of presents Sinterklaas writes in the book of Saint Nicholas that contains notes on all children that indicate whether the child has been good or naughty during the year. He traditionally rides a white-grey horse.

4) English folklore - Father Christmas dates back as far as 16th century in England during the reign of Henry VIII, when he was pictured as a large man in green or scarlet robes lined with fur. He typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, bringing peace, joy, good food and wine and partying. As England no longer kept the feast day of Saint Nicholas on December 6, the Father Christmas celebration was moved to December 25 to coincide with Christmas Day.

Most of the traditions he has been developed from have come from cultures where the people were white - so many think of him as white.
But he could be any color you want him to be.
I don't know too many Asians or Africans with big white beards but if you want to ditch the beard concept there's no stopping anyone.

Occasionally Santa is female - La Befana of Italy and Kolyada and/or Babushka of some parts of Russia.

Folklore doesn't stand still - it keep growing and evolving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christmas_gift-bring...

I'll put this in the "war on Christmas" file.
Meaning the "non issue" file.
Fox "news" took one person's opinion and blew it up into a holy war designed to incite the masses and you played right into it.
99% of people accept Santa as white and don't think twice about it.
Just like MOST people don't care about public displays of Christmas decorations and sentiments, whether they're Christian or not.
Fox just creates drama where there is none.
They're not journalists, they're pathetic fear mongers.
Ignore them!!!

I didn't hear the Fox reporter comments and I don't have a lot of patience for that kind of stuff.

According to my son, we are all shades of brown :) Which shade of brown is used to color his skin up to the person doing the drawing. No right or wrong (including that the 1823 poem wasn't right or wrong, just 1 depiction).

ETA (I think this is a bit of a silly exercise but here goes): Ok, by the time a child gets old enough to notice that one Santa looks different from another - that is going to happen regardless of skin tone. Some beards are real, some are really fake. Santas have different shaped noses, and faces, and different smiles. And Santa is in 2 different places at one time. If your child is older and still a believer, he/she has probably already accepted that even though there is 1 REAL Santa, there are many other Santa helpers in malls, parades, etc. And since none of us ever really see the REAL Santa, who knows what he really looks like? So no, even for those who want their kids to believe in the Santa magic, what the real Santa looks like is still in the eyes of the imaginer.

But did you see the movie "Hop?" The bunny was brown. BROWN!!!!!! It's a travesty. :)

Why can't Santa be black? Why is this a problem for some?
Your questions, back at you, with one word changed.

Why do you need Santa to be white? And yes, you seem to **need** that. So, you know what, some people need him to be brown. Why is this a problem?

Refusal to accept anything other than white as the default ethnicity for a mythical being based on many, many traditions is sad. Neither white nor male nor straight nor Christian is the forced default for everyone's "normal" for mythical beings. They're mythical. We get to decide for ourselves.

To quote your own words, "Lighten up; its Santa!"

I completely agree! Who cares if a fictional character that has been around for so many years happens to be white? Sure, depict him any way you want. But why is being white offensive? Some call it reverse racism, but its just racism if you are offended by the color of ones skin.

I just googled that news reporter, and I read the original article that sparked the comments. It is absurd to think we need to re-do the image of Santa to "spare millions of nonwhite kids the insecurity and shame" that the writer had to go through in her childhood. If Santa's skin color is so offensive that you feel ashamed to celebrate him.... then you might be a racist.

As an add-on: The writer of the article is suggesting that we "abandon Santa as fat-old-white-man and create a new symbol of Christmas cheer" in this country as a whole. I think this is ridiculous. Of course he can be represented in different races, to each their own! But to suggest that we abandon white Santa altogether is just mean for those who know and grew up with him... next thing you know they will be banning "white Santa" in schools and public places.

Santa can be White..no problem. I do not find a White santa to be offensive at all( I am non white). However, I grew up in a multiracial family so we had Santa's of every color in our home(even a Mexican one). Santa is ficitonal anyway so don't get too worked up over it.
Christy Lee-Black Pete?..that doesn't sound good...uh oh

There is a Chinese version of Cinderella, and some say it predates the other stories.

I think race is being talked about all the time because we are finally getting to the point that we can talk about it and find out each other's assumptions and misconceptions and have meaningful dialogue. This is much healthier than the past. Some folks keep getting surprised about the topics that have been previously assumed to be only one way can be viewed in multiple ways.

As the white culture was the dominant culture in the US in earlier times, dolls, toys, etc. were all fashioned in the dominant culture's skin color. I often think children's books have animals in order to skip over the skin color issue.

If Santa was created today, it would be interesting to see how he would be depicted. Could there be a mythical icon created new in these days that was not white but was universally accepted by the country? Would everyone then say it is okay for different groups to depict the new mythical icon in the various groups' skin colors, or would everyone insist that only one skin color would be accepted?

Santa is the color of whoever places gifts under a family's tree--usually the family's members. And we know that the family members are not necessarily all of the same skin color.

Now we can have a healthy talk about mixed races and how DNA is the same, and we are all human and so we are the same. The census categories need to change; we need to accept who we truly are and who everyone else is. Does one drop make a person black? white? other?

I do not watch Fox News. In fact I try to stay away from Fox News an any other news media type things because they cover the most ridiculous things. Good example being this "story". But either way..no idea why it's offensive. People can make him whatever race they want in their home. I really don't care.

Our Santa derives from our roots (Germanic, European, etc...) where it's influenced by Yule and Odin.

There's a really good block on information on WikiPedia. Just search Origins of Santa. I learned a lot. I personally think that if you're going to allow your children to believe in Santa, stick with the story/description from the beginning. Just like I tell my kids that there are many many tooth faeries. My kids have had male and female ones, with different names, and they all give the kids a letter, telling about themselves. The kids write letters to them, as well, asking about a faery's life. :)

My kids have noticed that not all Santas are the same, and how can there be one at one mall and then one at a dept. store on the same day, an hour apart? We have told them that St. Nicholas was real, and the idea is so lovely and generous and joyous that many people want to help out and bring as much happiness to as many as possible, so they dress up and "help" Santa! Never had any questions after that. ;) Oh, and that these Santa Helpers/look-a-likes really do know Santa, so they directly give Santa the list, etc...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, one and all!

L.

Holy cow. What the heck has happened to people. Everything is about race the past five years. Wonder why? Everyone can have their own opinion about what color Santa is. Oy. Life is way too short for all this PC
Racial stuff.

I don't care what color Santa is; we don't do Santa in our family so it doesn't affect us anyway. Of course, in one's own household Santa can be any color you want... he could even be female if that's what you like.

But I was wondering, for all the people who replied that Santa can be any race and whose kids do believe in Santa: Are you OK with public Santas being any race? Would it not confuse your children at all if the Santa they take pictures with in the mall is Asian, the Santa at the end of the parade and is African, and the Santa in Miracle on 34th Street is white?

Take that one step further, if a mall decides to only hire old, white men to be their Santas, can they get sued for discrimination? Is it ok for an organization to say they prefer their Santas to all look the same to make it more "real" for the kids?

Just wondering what others thoughts are on this.

I think Santa can be whatever race a person wants em to be. In my house, Santa is Italian..... that is to say when it's my husband doing the giving.. when it's me, It's Swedish or French...