Execellent piece. I didn't know most of that. I do recall waking up one Christmas to the realisation that the Santa image with the fat belly and rosey cheeks and bellowing laugh was as far as you could get from the image of the emaciated mortified Christ who died for our sins.
I was also intrigued by this notion of arrival via the chimney. Distinctly Freudian. And it makes the surveillance angle even creepier.
Thank you! Good point about the chimney, I hadn’t thought about that. I definitely think the Santa myth has a lot to unpack from a Freudian perspective…
"Shopping is the ubiquitous holiday ritual under late stage capitalism. The only difference between holidays is the colour scheme."
This is oh-so-true! You know when Christmas is coming? It's when they replace the Halloween candy wrappers on the store shelves with the red and green varieties. (I think I was assaulted with Christmas decorations when I walked into a Lowes around Labor Day in September this year actually... Too early!)
Excellent piece on the history of Santa Claus. I just realized that I have very few Christmas decorations with Santa on them. I count just two. I've never been a big fan of the "jolly ol' elf" much, although I know for a fact that my grandfather was Santa Claus. He sat on a chair outside the Piggly-Wiggly grocery store in Summerville, South Carolina, in the 1960s. Being tall and very thin and of Native American heritage, he had no facial hair and no belly, so he was forced to wear the fake beard and stuff lots of pillows in his coat. The best thing about him was that he was one of the first integrated Santa Clauses--black and white kids alike were allowed to sit on his lap. The commercialized Santas just can't compare to the memories of my granddaddy, the real Santa.
Execellent piece. I didn't know most of that. I do recall waking up one Christmas to the realisation that the Santa image with the fat belly and rosey cheeks and bellowing laugh was as far as you could get from the image of the emaciated mortified Christ who died for our sins.
I was also intrigued by this notion of arrival via the chimney. Distinctly Freudian. And it makes the surveillance angle even creepier.
Thank you! Good point about the chimney, I hadn’t thought about that. I definitely think the Santa myth has a lot to unpack from a Freudian perspective…
Pity the children whose parents do the stupid elf on the shelf thing🙄
I’ve always been terrified of those lol
Can't say I blame you. Lol.
"Shopping is the ubiquitous holiday ritual under late stage capitalism. The only difference between holidays is the colour scheme."
This is oh-so-true! You know when Christmas is coming? It's when they replace the Halloween candy wrappers on the store shelves with the red and green varieties. (I think I was assaulted with Christmas decorations when I walked into a Lowes around Labor Day in September this year actually... Too early!)
Excellent piece on the history of Santa Claus. I just realized that I have very few Christmas decorations with Santa on them. I count just two. I've never been a big fan of the "jolly ol' elf" much, although I know for a fact that my grandfather was Santa Claus. He sat on a chair outside the Piggly-Wiggly grocery store in Summerville, South Carolina, in the 1960s. Being tall and very thin and of Native American heritage, he had no facial hair and no belly, so he was forced to wear the fake beard and stuff lots of pillows in his coat. The best thing about him was that he was one of the first integrated Santa Clauses--black and white kids alike were allowed to sit on his lap. The commercialized Santas just can't compare to the memories of my granddaddy, the real Santa.
Thank you! Wow, that’s cool about your grandfather. Sounds like an interesting bit of family history