Santa is changing, but is everyone happy about it?
One of the most recognizable symbols for Christmas cheer is Santa Claus who has become entrenched in cultures all over the world. However, there is more to this fictional figure than meets the eye. While for some people Santa might just be a jolly old grandfather from the North Pole with a reindeer called Rudolf and an army of present-making elves, for others he is the face of an ongoing debate about race and ethnicity—which reached a boiling point when a certain Santa stepped into the limelight in 2016.
The first Santa of color to be hired by the Mall of America in its 24 years, Santa Larry immediately stirred up controversy with his appearance. People were outraged that Santa wasn’t a white man and took to social media to make their opinion known. “Stupid. Incredibly stupid. Santa is WHITE,” wrote one person on the profile of WCCO, a CBS television station licensed to Minneapolis. The comments section on the article the Minneapolis Star Tribune published about Santa Larry was turned off. “Looks like we had to turn comments off on story about Mall of America’s first black Santa. Merry Christmas everyone,” tweeted Star Tribune editor Scott Gillespie. Others felt that a Santa of color was taking political correctness too far or was simply not traditional enough.
There were also those who voiced their support for Santa Larry, both on social media and in real life, and they far outnumbered those who didn’t: “@StarTribune Good for the Mall of America! Santa is for every child”; “I think I just started believing in Santa again? #blacksanta #santaLarry.” According to The Washington Post, many families drove long hours to Minnesota for a holiday experience they thought was long overdue, and a woman told Santa Larry that she had waited 25 years to see a Santa of color. As awareness skyrocketed, Santa Larry’s popularity rose.
However, the man in the spotlight was unfazed at the uproar. “I’m just a messenger to bring hope, love, and peace to girls and boys,” the man behind Santa Larry, otherwise known as Larry Jefferson, explained. As The Washington Post reported, Jefferson became Santa for the first time for his family at 12 when his father was unable to. Years later in the army, Jefferson once again took up the red coat, this time for troops thousands of miles away from home. To him, Santa was more than just an occupation; he was a calling. Regarding Santas of color, Jefferson commented they were “far and few between,” and there was a need for more of them as “kids need to see a Santa that looks like them.”
It has been the norm for Santa to be portrayed by elderly white males for so long that not all can accept the time has come for Santa to change. However, all children deserve to see that Santa Claus is not confined to only one color but is every color.
Feature Image Christmas ornament Courtesy of Pixabay.com
by Esther Wu