Santa Claus in the World of Media and Consumerism

It was rather intriguing to hear an additional theory about how Santa Claus evolved to the persona we know today. The fact the the Santa Claus we know today is a result of an advertising campaign in 1931 by Coca Cola is already an indication of the way media function, in my opinion, not through mere emotional messaging that appeals to the populace, but through an essential repetition. Yet, the theory someone introduced in a radio show today, also refers to an embedded message meant at the crisis-stricken populations of Europe and US. The Santa we know today is red, plum and jolly. He eats milk and cookies, and has a factory with elf workers in the North Pole. He hasn’t always been that plump or red. In fact, his depiction ranged from thin to fat, from short to tall, and some images also showed him as an elf or a bishop (according to the Coca Cola website itself).

True, Coca Cola dismisses the myth that it created a red Santa coat because it was the official Coke color, although not all Father Christmas images are clad in red. The fizzy drink giant, less of a giant back then, had intended to promote the brand as a winter beverage as well as a summer one. The radio theory, steps in here, explaining that despite that this might be the fact, there was an additional underlying goal, namely, to give hope to people struck with the economic crisis of 1929.

Meanwhile, Santa Claus has developed immensely through movies. He has a Mrs. Claus, which also another interesting. The gift-giving bishop St. Nicholas was never portrayed as having a wife, and only when he was transformed, via Sinterklaas*, into the more secular Santa Claus in the early 19th century did a wife appear. The wife of Santa Claus is first mentioned in the short story “A Christmas Legend” (1849), by James Rees, a Philadelphia-based Christian missionary. (another wiki)

In the story, an old man and woman, both carrying a bundle on the back, are given shelter in a home on Christmas Eve as weary travelers. The next morning, the children of the house find an abundance of gifts for them, and the couple is revealed to be not “old Santa Claus and his wife”, but the hosts’ long-lost elder daughter and her husband in disguise. (wiki)

Santa also runs a factory in which the elves are the workers. A capitalist Santa is constantly upgrading his service quality, delivery time, and receiving tax and efficiency inspector. In some movies, he gets paid, but who is the employer? His wife is sometimes young and sexy, or he is about to become a father to a newborn. In a certain movie he is fighting another character that tends to change the North Pole to a commercial theme park! It might not be a marvel to see a character so commercialised by the media to be fighting commercialism (including stricter measures to select nice children so that his factory can cut on production). I’d see this character not as a children’s legendary hero, but as an integrated image that reflects various aspects of the modern life where their conflicts are more between the commercial and the more commercial, the consumerist and the more consumerist, although this needs a lot of research and study.

* SinterKlaas is the origin of Santa Claus. He is celebrated on the eve of December 5 in many European countries mainly the Netherlands, Belgium, Aruba, Suriname and Netherlands Antilles. The character is controversial in The Netherlands, because of Zwarte Piet, (Black Pete) who has his origin in the bishop’s legendary past. According to the story three small Moorish boys were sentenced to death for a crime they did not commit. The bishop intervened, saving them. To show their gratitude, the boys remained with Sinterklaas to help him, tumbling and jumping on rooftops on Sinterklaas night to deliver presents. Nowaday, the Dutch color their faces with black to personify Zwarte Piet. The controversy arises amongst intellectual post-colonial discourse in addition to concepts such as otherness, difference, and multi-culturalism compared to interculturalism.

SinterKlaas at the library in Amsterdam