Can Santa be Legit if He is Not White?

What Race Is Santa? That is a weird question to ask. I feel silly even asking. But I know that this question is a real thing. I’ve never seen “Asian” Santa décor in Lowe’s Home Improvement, Wal-mart, or Target. Why not? The Pew Center reported that about 42% of Asian Americans identify as Christians.

I’ve always had a curious relationship with Santa.

Should Christians include him in Christmas?

Is it Santa or Saint Nick?

Is he for black people?

Does Santa have to be white?

Don’t Feel Sorry For Me, I’m OK now, I think…

When I was little, Santa definitely had to be white. I would never have sat on the lap of a black Santa because that would mean I was sitting on the lap of an imposter. By my own immature deduction, if the Santa was white, then there was a real possibility that he was legit. I don’t know how my mind reasoned that. Actually, I do (enter whiteness theory, white default, internalized anti-blackness, and so forth). Without the mention of the states italicized in the previous sentence, such a state of mind would be considered a very curious phenomenon. Here’s why……….

When I was a little girl, no white man had ever shown any kindness to me. Not that I could remember. The only white man I remembered interacting with me was the salesman who worked at Belk Tyler department store. My cousin, sister, and I would go there with my grandmother on Saturdays, sometimes. It was a welcomed break from her weekly 3-4 hour grocery haul routine. He would greet us warmly, then ask my grandmother, “Who is this little boy”, while smiling and looking at me. The first few times he did it, I took it as a silly joke and laughed. But as time went on, I began to dread seeing him in the store. He would follow us around the store making such jokes, watching me get angry, and looking for the next opportunity to continue. Sometimes I would be so angry that my eyes would well up with tears. It was very humiliating.

I grew up “in the country”. My mom would typically dress me in jeans, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes to hang out at my grandmother’s house on Saturdays. My hair was not very long and was usually in a plaited or braided hairstyle for low maintenance. We were sure to be outside as much as possible, and there was no “prettying up” happening for that.

My grandmother and aunt would be chatting and looking for something specific, seemingly unaware of this man’s taunting. I would shout at him in my toughest, girliest voice, “I’m not a boy!” He would just laugh. He’d see my embarrassment but that didn’t stop him.  There was something about his way that made me feel, at that young age, that he thought I was ugly because I was black. No one ever told me that black was ugly or less than, but I felt that way whenever he was around. I would notice when little white children came in. I never saw him “playing” with them in the same menacing way. He seemed to be very kind to them. But, who knows? Maybe there is a white woman about my age, somewhere writing about the same experience with him! At any rate, I have since concluded that guy was just a jerk. I can see his face now, though I never knew his name. Average height, white male, white hair, glasses. Almost like Santa, minus the beard, red suit, and reindeer.

Nonetheless, he and Santa were the only white men in my life at the time. I was probably 4 or 5 years old. Actually, there was one more, *Mr. Baylor, the owner of Baylor’s store. It was a little country mart that was supposedly the gathering place for klansmen and white supremacists. Very bad vibes to be felt when my aunt would send me in to pay for gas.

Fast forward a few years. By the time I was fully out of the Santa stage, it was very clear to me that Santa could not be real. If he were real, then he would be the only white man that I knew of who wasn’t racist. You’d have to understand the town I grew up in in order to relate to the plausibility of my reasoning. That’s a whole other post. Or maybe Santa is real, and just like Mr. Belk Tyler, he likes to be mean to black kids. That would explain:

• why I never got that multi-level, fully furnished dollhouse that I asked him for
• all the toys in the JC Penney’s Christmas catalog that I circled, cut out, posted and wished upon a star for, that never came  
• And those cookies that we baked for him, that he never came down the chimney to eat. Was it because we had a wood burning heater instead of a fireplace? Or was it because, white Santa is racist???

Don’t worry; I have thought this through a bit more since then. I have come up with a more sophisticated conclusion.

Doing the Math on White Santa

Public Religion Research Institute (2017) said that 75% of Hispanic and Latino Americans are Christians. Pew Research Center says 70% of black Americans identify as Christian and 70% of Whites. PRRI (2020) said that 60% of Native Americans identify as Christians. The Pew Center (2012) reported that about 42% of Asian Americans identify as Christians. Though not exact, the numbers are close across the sources I reviewed for this post. I feel pretty good about using them to help illustrate my points. Disclaimer: I do not claim to be a sociologist or statistician. If my numbers are off to the degree that a margin error is statistically significant enough to upset the main point of this post, by all means, do tell.

Here’s how I put the data together to try to understand what my expectations of Santa should be.  Note: A review of the tables is not necessary to understand where I am going with all of this.  Feel free to skip down to “So What’s the Point?”

Race/Ethnic Groups Identified in Data Sources	Percentage identifying as Christian	2020 Census Population	Estimated number of Christians	Additional notes
Hispanic	75%	62.1M	46.6M	May include those who identify as white in the Census data collection tool.
White	70%	204.3M	143M	May include those who identify as Hispanic in religious research data collection tools.
Black	70%	41.1M	28.8M	May include those who identify as Hispanic on Census data collection tools.
Native American	60%	5.9M	3.5M	Data collection criteria are inconsistent regarding groups“.
Asian	42%	19.9M	8.6M	Data collection criteria are inconsistent regarding “groups” across research agencies.
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	–	689,966		Census identifies separately from other groups though religious researchers inconsistently included in the “Asian” or “Native American” category inconsistently.

Although it is impossible to come to get data that perfectly marries population numbers and Christian identity with 100% accuracy, I’m going with these numbers to conclude the following for our pondering:

Racial/Ethnicity Categories	US Population	Percentage of Total US Christian Population
“White” Christians	143M	62%
“Christians of Color”	87.5M	38%
Total	230.5M	(the above is based on data collected from religious research sources)

So What’s The Point?

In statistics, there is a formula that measures “significance”. Statistical significance lets us know if a thing is actually a thing or just a fluke, anomaly, or mistake. I’m going to say that the numbers above do beg that we acknowledge that there are enough Christians of color that we should see more non-Caucasian Santas in public, in retail, and in media than we currently do. I do acknowledge that numbers can be thrown together to tell any story the number thrower wants to tell.  Therefore, I encourage you to review Census and religious research data for yourself. Tell me if you think it’s reasonable, that in this country, at the present day, Santa should be white at least 90% of the time he is seen. I made up 90% because I have no data except my own observations. I feel that I’m being conservative with the 90%. Feel free to rebut. I think it might be impossible though.

I do understand that in the big scheme of things, a white Santa means nothing. Not a hill to die on. For one, many Christians do not celebrate Christmas with Santa, and two, some Christians do not celebrate at all. However, I think that it’s important for me to point out these things because there are still too many Christians who get offended by seeing a Santa of color. To them, it is a statement of “wokeness”, “political correctness”, or “reverse-racist”. For others, a non-white Santa can never measure up. Clearly illegitimate on the basis of non-whiteness.  To me, a Santa of color is none of the aforementioned. Quick question: If you took your kid or grandkid to the mall and waited in line for 30 minutes, only to get to the front of the line and see that Santa is black or Asian, would you:

• feel like your kid was cheated out of a real Christmas experience?
• be annoyed?
• look for another photo opportunity with a white Santa to legitimize the Santa experience?
• Do all of the above?
• Do none of the above?

Actually, this question is appropriate for Christians of all races. And while we are at it, what about Christmas angels, and tree ornaments? Why not use these small opportunities to show our kids that skin color truly is not a thing of negativity or suspicion. Let’s release the claws of racial/ethnic bias that are holding on for dear life.

Release …..

Breathe out.

Take a deep breath in……

Now, slowly exhale…….

Good job.

What I Really Believe About Santa

I actually don’t celebrate Christmas with “Santa”. However, I do love that Santa began in the tradition of a brother in Christ, Saint Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra. I have read that he came from a wealthy family and was compelled by Matthew 19:21 to invest his wealth in the lives of others.  He was known for using his wealth to rescue poor people with large and small donations. So this is what I think: Santa is based on the man, Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas, the man, based his life on the Savior. Therefore, my conclusion is that Santa should be a physical representation of what we understand as followers of Christ: love gives. Santa can and should be the person who is led by the sweet Holy Spirit to give to others. Because of love, God gave. Because of love, we give. There is no racial or ethnic limitation, restriction, or requirement on that.

So, even though St. Nicholas’ “earth suit” was white, your Santa’s does not have to be.  I would love to see pictures of “Santa” in every hue. If you have any, I invite you to share them with me in the comments section.

A joyous Christmas season to you and yours!

21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. Matthew 21:19

*not his real name