I have to admit the first time I saw a brown Santa Claus I was taken aback. He didn’t seem right. He didn’t fit into the mold of the Coca-Cola envisioned Santa Claus we’ve all grown up with.
This was years ago, and I had honestly not given Santa’s skin color any more thought until a couple of weeks ago when a friend asked a group of us (almost all Latinas) if we cared if the jolly man was brown or white or if he spoke English or Spanish.
I realized then I was still bothered by the image of a brown or Latino Santa Claus. I mean, why do we feel the need to change a legendary figure into something else just to fit our own mold? Why do we even have a mold? Aren´t we the ones always fighting to come out of that mold that defines all Latinos under one color, nationality or even music style?
If we want a man from the North Pole– who’s real origins trace back to a Christian saint from Europe, Bishop Nicholas–to be brown, then we have a lot of explaining to do to our niños, right? Santa Claus is who he is. He is white, with a huge white beard, a perfectly round belly and a red fur outfit. If we change any of that, then we change the game some of us have accepted to play along with during this season.
I don´t need my daughter to have to identify with Santa Claus as a Latino for her to feel connected. Just seems ridiculous and closed-minded to me since I´m teaching her to embrace all colors, all languages, all religions and all traditions.
The issue of language is different, though. As the legend goes, Santa is supposed to know all the languages in the world since his job is to go around the globe spreading Christmas joy and gifts. So if my bilingual daughter is to sit on Santa´s lap and at that moment decides to speak to him in Spanish, then he´ll just have to be able to respond to her.
I hadn´t really thought about this little detail when I stood in line with her for almost an hour to finally-after four years!-get her picture with the Claus (yes, the one at the beginning of this post.) This Santa clearly only spoke English, so what would happen if she told him que se había portado muy bien y quería un vestido y la corona de Rapunzel para Navidad?
Fortunately, not a single word came out of my stunned, yet brave, four-year-old as she sat on Santa´s lap and coyly posed for their first picture together.
Now I´m sure that next year I will be doing my Santa Claus research to try and locate a Spanish-speaking one around town so my girl can have yet another immersive experience to reinforce her need and want to speak her heritage language.
But, please, no need to make him brown! If I want a Christmas character to identify with, I have el Niño Jesús and los Tres Reyes Magos to bring us plenty of cultural and authentic traditional cheer.
Share: Does it matter to you, or your kids, Santa´s color and/or language?
I don’t think it would really matters to my kids, but yes, they may be surprised to see a brown Santa, because we are not brown, but talking about races, either me or them would make any difference. Is alwasy great to find diversity, and it would be great to find a bilingual Santa Claus, but if he speaks english would be fine, at least that’s the benefit of having bilingual children, they will understand Santa in english or spanish no matter if he is bilingual or not. This is a very Interesting discussion
True! They will understand HIM, but will he understand THEM?
In my mind San Nicolas is a blue eyed white bearded man that speaks Spanish. And when he even laughs it sounds Jo-Jo-Jo not Ja-ja-ja. And honestly, I am o.k. with it.
When I was growing up all that mattered was that he would bring me presents – and really that is what still matters most LOL!
That’s our Santa, too! and, yes…it’s about the presents and the whole game surrounding Santa which we choose to participate in or not..right?
I never gave this much thought either but I would welcome a diverse Santa Claus.
This is so timely. I’m not a practicing Catholic. Just a very spiritual and faithful person. So this time of year is proving tricky. I’ve been searching out a variety of stories to share but mainstream images and media are all the same (white & in English) so it’s not easy to reinforce what I’m trying to instill in my girls. It does and doesn’t bother me, if that makes sense. I’m just going to have to look in the local Latino community for Santa sightings =)
Tell us what you find! Will be interesting to know how different Latino communities decide to portray Santa
Carla, definitely take a look if you can. I didn’t really think about it beforehand, but we just happened to be at a (very hispanic oriented) flea market one day in December last year when Santa showed up. I think it turned out really great that my son’s first Santa Claus photo ended up being with a Santa who pronounced his name correctly. I really don’t think he cared a fig if Santa’s eyes weren’t blue!
My opinion? Santa Clause is a nice icon, but never really ours. While my daughter will grow up in the states knowing all about Santa and seeing him every Christmas, her “aunt” will tell her stories, kids at school will talk about him, etc… I don’t see a need to make him look like us.
However, will I look for a Santa that speaks Spanish? Probably… No need to rain on an imagination too early…
We’re totally on the same page!
We are having our kids christmas party on wednesday and my son is the only one that speaks spanish and some english. Grandpa is gonna be santa clause and he asked me if my son was gonna understand him. I told him i didnt know and he is practicing how to say Que quieres para navidad? I found your white bilingual santa clause!!!
What a nice Santa..I mean, Grandpa!
No need to destroy the myth so quickly
What a great post! I am with you: Santa has nordic roots so it makes sense that he is white. I’ve never felt compelled to make him another race or ethnicity. Now, in our house Santa DOES speak Spanish. That comes with what he does for work.
By the way, your daughter is adorable, Ana! Good for her for being a trooper. Santa can be scary up and close.
Because of my country’s history, we are a mix of virtually every ethnicity, so Santa’s colour/race is not really an issue here – we are more concerned with whether or not he has the right girth! That said, I have to admit that while a Caucasian Santa looks fine on television and in the movies, he looks odd and out of place to me in real life, since he would look like a very small minority of our citizens.
For me, Santa is white and blue eyed, and don´t see the need to change that image. It´s an icon, right? Being from the North Pole, there`s no way he has dark skin, so leave him alone. BTW, your daughter is so beautiful!!
I’m a little torn about this. I understand why parents want their kids to associate with a Santa with melanin. There are so many icons in our society that are “white.” But, I also agree that there seems to be a desperate need to fight for everything to be brown. I don’t know what I will do when the time comes.
I’m fortunate to have been raised in a really open home where color didn’t matter. Papi, abuelo and abuela are black and my other abuela is Chinita….. we’re all mixed in complexion and speak a combo of 6 languages… Santa was papi (knowing that now), so it didn’t matter. He was just a shorte, thinner man that loved to eat the cookies mami left for him… visiting him at the malls was a different story… he was always blanco y super gordo… my fave one was always a black santa…always had more soul!! never seen a Latino Santa!! something wrong with that picture!?! Great post.
Bren, here in Houston the Thanksgiving parade ALWAYS features Pancho Claus riding right behind Santa Claus. Santa waves and says Merry Christmas, Pancho waves and says Feliz Navidad, and the whole crowd shouts Merry Christmas back at Santa & shouts Feliz Navidad back at Pancho.
Santa siempre será blanco en mi concepto. En Colombia quien nos trae los regalos es el Niño Jesús, así que no teníamos ese dilema, ya que ni sabíamos como luce lol
My daughter (age 20 now) was 4 when we were living in a predominantly African-American neighborhood and she went to a preschool where most of the teachers were Black also. One day Santa Claus came to visit the children at school — really, something quite normal, one of the school administrators dressed as Santa. So that evening I was actually already mentally ready for a question from my daughter. And not somehow surprised when I asked how she enjoyed Santa’s visit and she said she had lots of fun “but now I know for sure Santa is not a real person.” Oh, I said, how come? “Because the Santa at the mall is a man but the Santa today had boobies. I could feel it when I was sitting on his lap.” (And isn’t it interesting how she still said HIS lap?)
Although I was sad she was disillusioned about Santa, I was happy that she seemed not to have even noticed the color thing. It just goes to show children don’t always see things how we do.
My stepkids and nieces & nephews from a very early age figured out about Santa because when their dad and aunts tried to “do” Santa, as immigrants and unfamiliar with the tradition they didn’t do it at all the same as the kids had already heard about it being done from neighbor kids, tv shows etc. (in English, which their parents don’t always understand). When I came into their lives I realized they were actually pretending to believe… I am not sure it was for their parents’ sake. I think a child just loves this Santa thing so much.
My kids are half African-American and half Latino. I like the idea of multicultural Santas. I had my kids take a picture with a Black Santa before and it was a lot of fun and I once played a Spanish speaking elf for a Christmas party. Some might not think it matters, there are still some anglo “Santas” that treat little kids differently if they are Black. I have seen it time and time again where I live. Yes, Latinos do suffer prejudice and bias and discrimination, however, in some areas kids that are chocolate brown get treated the worst of all. So to alievate that problem, why not in a predominately Black neighborhood, have a Black Santa? Let the kids actually have light in their eyes of someone positively caring about who they are and that person looks like them. All the heroes do not have to be White, even though historically he was. Now at home we have movies about Santas and stories about them and the stories are with White Santas. My kids love it and watch it and they do not mind and neither do I. I never told the kids that Santa was real anyway but just a story like the three little pigs and they have a lot of fun with it even still. I explain that Santa is based on St Nicolas who was a real man and the history behind it and where he comes from and yes he is White and everything about his positive love for kids. =) For us, Santa does not bring gifts but the Three Kings do. I know that Santa originally is white. That is fine with me, but sometimes kids want a character to also look like them. Jesus was not blond and blue eyes but he is depicted as such. Not many people have a problem with that, ( a historically incorrect depiction of Jesus) but they have gotten out of line and pulled their kids out of line when a Black Santa was at the picture taking place. I do not think that was right and it was ugly and the things people said were ugly. But it made my experience better because I got to zip through the line faster although my kids asked why everyone was leaving. I did not have the heart to tell them… just yet……..
Oh as far as language, it definitely matters! I am a Bilingual children’s entertainer and educator. I played an elf recently. Being able to connect to the little kids in Spanish… was EVERYTHING!! They thought I was a REAL elf and they smiled and hugged me and were thrilled that I could understand and speak to them. They said “Mami, ella habla espanol!” I have heard some terrible prejudiced comments over the years by many other children’s entertainers about children of color. I have always stood up for and cared all children regardless of color, status, language and etc…..but understand not all entertainers do and underneath the costume some of them think some very unkind things. Most Santas are not children’s entertainers and just do it for extra money at the holidays so imagine what you are getting. For this reason, and for the kids’ sake… I say it is a GOOD idea to have a diverse group of children’s entertainers.