For many of us, Santa Claus is an epic figure who, along with Mrs. Claus, helper elves and magical reindeers live at the North Pole and once a year fly around the world dropping down chimneys to leave gifts for kids. For children around the world, this is not a story, but a hard fact.
Real or not, I think we can all agree that Santa Claus is about hope, magic, generosity and whimsy. Or, at least he should be.
It’s interesting to ponder whether or not Santa has always been a gift-giving, sleigh-riding, man we’ve come to know and love. Does the name Santa Clause bring up similar images of a Jolly Man in Red for everyone?
I think it’s fair to say we often assume other people picture the world the way we do, and it can be quite shocking when that assumption turns out to be wrong. This picture of a freaked out Santa Claus and kid could be the poster for our society over the last few years.
It’s really hard when people we like and respect disagree with us on key issues. As much as we may want to, it’s too easy to suddenly paint them with the “dumb” or “evil” brush and just cancel them. Personally, I find when I want to do that I am stuck in a “victim” mindset. And if I’m the “victim” the only other role available for the other person is the “villain” role.
This gets us nowhere.
Perhaps a better question to ask would be: Who’s pulling our strings?
Even the wholesome notion of Santa Claus has been used to push agendas and manipulate the masses.
Santa Claus has a long history that stretches all the way back to the 3rd century, when Saint Nicholas, a real living man, walked the earth. As shared by History.com, ”It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around A.D. 280 in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick.”. By the 14th century, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe
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It wasn’t until almost 1,500 years after his death, that St. Nicholas made his first encroachment into American popular culture. The more commercial aspects of Christmas and gift-giving began in the early 19th century when stores started to advertise Christmas shopping. By the 1840’s, newspapers were creating separate sections for paid holiday advertisements, which often featured images of the newly-popular Santa Claus endorsing various products.
1919: Murad Turkish Cigarettes
1954: Coca-Cola
1983: Seagram’s Crown Royal
2007: Niko Motion Detectors
Propaganda, in general, refers to a purposeful and structural effort to manipulate people and direct behavior in order to elicit a specific response and reach a specific goal which is favored by the propagandist. By that definition alone, the above section, “advertising” would also fall into propaganda. The only difference is we all know that advertising is manipulating our emotions in order to get to our wallets.
As such, other forms of propaganda, outside of consumerism, can be trickier to spot. Due to our own emotional attachments to the “story”, we may not want to see these forms of manipulation as propaganda. Confirmation bias is twisting the facts to fit our beliefs, and it’s often on the subconscious level- which is why so much propaganda is uses subliminal messages.
Posters from both the First and Second World Wars used Santa Claus to motivate people to support war efforts, both in terms of enlistment, as well as buying war bonds. And in 2020, Anthony Fauci told children that he took a trip to the North Pole to vaccinate Santa.
As shared by writer, Alicia Wanless, “Christmas can be an emotional time of year. From a propagandist’s perspective, that can present both opportunities and challenges, depending on the strategic needs, and whether or not a campaign’s aim is to build morale, or break it.”
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1942 Office for Emergency Management, War Production Board
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Krampus is a horned figure who scares misbehaving children. This Alpine legend is the original “Bad Santa” story. Counterpart to St. Nicholas’ light, is Krampus’ dark.
According to folk-lore, the pair would visit children on December 5th and pass judgment. Saint Nicholas would reward the well-behaved children with gifts; such as oranges and chocolate. The badly behaved children received punishment from Krampus, a half-man, half-goat, who would “chase them to hell”. Wow.
This depiction is the original spin of the “Naughty and Nice” aspect to Christmas, and the anthropomorphic representation of “light vs. dark”.This concept is just an earlier version of the “victim/villain” dynamic we see playing out in our society today.
This is the earliest example of the St. Nicolas/Santa Claus figure being used as propaganda to control others’ behavior. It’s also the oldest manipulation tool in the book- fear.
As the character Ruth from The Barbie movie said, “Humans only have one ending. Ideas live forever.”
Does everyone imagine the same way? I hope not. If that were the case, the world would be quite boring and nothing new or innovative would happen. Just look at the public domain; a microcosm for reinvention of concepts, icons, and archetypes. We both celebrate and fight differences in our culture. The determining factor of which stance we take seems to be whether or not “the issue” is personal to us. However, it’s worth asking if we are making informed decisions in these moments?
The propaganda surrounding Santa Claus can make it hard to remember he’s just a fictional figure- and that seems to be on purpose. Joseph Goebbels wrote, “The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never again escape from it.” Adolph Hitler famously agreed with Goebbels.
Behind the red and white gloss, is a childhood fantasy figure with a fundamental flaw. Somehow we’ve managed to take the Saint out of a man who was known for bearing gifts and advocating for the poor, and replace his image as a tool of consumerism-gone-mad.
With all the advertising and propaganda we are subjected during the holiday season, it’s easy to not even realize we are getting get caught up in the hustle and bustle and pushing ourselves to keep-up-with-the-Joneses, even, or especially, if that means maxing out credit cards.
We all know Christmas is about giving and caring, and yet, we somehow get caught up in energy and end up stomping over others in order to fill our already full shopping carts.
By all accounts, St. Nicholas was an incredible human being who was full of compassion, grace and kindness. Modern Santa should also represent goodness. There are so many opportunities to give back and be part of the true spirit of Christmas; whether that’s through toy-drives, volunteering at a soup kitchen, or attending a spiritual event.
I feel that the ones with the clearest view on this is our children- so let’s let them teach us. Sometimes the best thing we can do is humble ourselves, let our inner child come out, and see the world as kids’ do; full of wonder, magic, and gifts that are given without conditions.
An avid book reader and proud library card holder, Angela is new to the world of e-Readers. She has a background in education, emergency response, fitness, loves to be in nature, travelling and exploring. With an honours science degree in anthropology, Angela also studied writing after graduation. She has contributed work to The London Free Press, The Gazette, The Londoner, Best Version Media, Lifeliner, and Citymedia.ca.
