Santa tradition as malleable as his girth

Jean Whyte asserts the role of Father Christmas has to be true to tradition and long may “real” Santas continue.

However, she argues from a perspective that traditions are somehow immutable, complete, independent of socio-cultural influence.

The “real” tradition of Santa Claus is as malleable as the size of his girth. Unromanticised Saint Nicholas (270-343AD) was a skinny monk from Patara, an area once Greek but now part of Turkey. Traditions ascribe him as providing dowries to avoid children having to prostitute themselves.

The modern Western take on the Santa Claus tradition is attributed to a poem by Clement Clarke Moore, A Visit from St. Nicholas, known today as The Night Before Christmas, published in 1823. Santa got a major aesthetic makeover to better reflect this poem in a 1931 Coca-Cola advertising campaign that included changing his green suit to red.

Thus there was never a “real” Santa Claus, but a changing tradition subjected to sociocultural and economic values at particular times. The values of generosity, liberality, care of children and joy are able to be equally expressed by a Sara Claus or Sasha Claus. Such values have nothing to do with gender or patriarchal prerogative and kids already know that.