CurtainRaiser Posted December 28, 2021 Share Posted December 28, 2021 Britain really is a bizarre island. Over the Christmas period YouGov conducted a poll on acceptable ethnicities for Santa Claus, which is a bizarre poll to conduct anyway, before you even get to the findings. Unsurprisingly the majority of Brits (80%) decided that it is acceptable to portray Father Christmas as a white man, but almost half decided it's actually wrong to portray Santa as middle-eastern! It seems that an awful lot of Brits don't even realise that Father Christmas is based on the Christian Saint Nicholas of Myra. Saint Nicholas was a Bishop in southern Turkey in the 4th Century AD, who was famous for his habit of secret gift-giving. Apparently a lot of people no longer give a damn about the Christian origins of the Santa Claus story, and prefer to believe in the image of a fat, bearded, rosy-cheeked, white guy in a red jacket, which was popularised through a long-running series of Coca Cola commercials designed by Haddon Sunbloom. There were depictions of fat, white Santa in a red coat before the massive 1930s Coca Cola marketing operation, but they were by no means as ubiquitous as they are today. Isn't it telling that capitalism has taken over Christmas to such an extent that the capitalist depiction of Santa is now considered unquestionable in the minds of so many, while anyone who tried to depict Father Christmas as a Christian Bishop from ancient southern Turkey would face being told that they're wrong by a load of people, and vitriolic accusations from the radically right-wing culture war grifters that they're "pandering" to ethnic minorities. In reality, isn't it white people who are being pandered to with this relentless depiction of Santa as a bearded northern European looking dude, when just like Jesus Christ, he was actually of middle-eastern origin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John52 Posted December 28, 2021 Share Posted December 28, 2021 True But are some people going too far the other way? All this talk of 'White Privelege' and 'Black Lives Matter' A white guy working 3 crap zero hours jobs to rent a slave box in a slum might say Hold on - I'm Not Priveleged - Don't my life matter? Then all this tallk about violence against women What about violence against men? He might think if they don't care about violence against me, why should I care about violence against them? But perhaps there is a purpose to it Keep the working classes falling out amongst themselves Same Old Tory Divide & Rule :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John52 Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 and it goes beyond that Talk of help for families - ignoring single people Help for Heroes - those who have worked for the military - ignoring everyone else - the benefit system is good enough for them *-) 'Key workers' how do they decide which workers are worth more than others? Everything this Government does is divisive >:-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 CurtainRaiser - 2021-12-28 6:23 PM................................... Isn't it telling that capitalism has taken over Christmas to such an extent that the capitalist depiction of Santa is now considered unquestionable in the minds of so many, while anyone who tried to depict Father Christmas as a Christian Bishop from ancient southern Turkey would face being told that they're wrong by a load of people, and vitriolic accusations from the radically right-wing culture war grifters that they're "pandering" to ethnic minorities. ................................. Nah, and you can't prove any of that. Everyone knows Santa lives in Lapland, innit? Blimey, he travels by sleigh = snow = Lapland. Clue there, innit? Plus, another clue, his sleigh is pulled by bleedin' reindeer = Lapland. Plus, plus, no, listen, Laps are all white, innit? Plus, plus, Lapland is in northern Europe, innit? So, as him and his reindeer are all from bleedin' Lapland, he has to be a white man from northern Europe, innit? Plus, plus, if he was a Turk, he'd be suffering from vitamin D deficiency in bleedin' Lapland, wouldn't he, so no ho, ho, ho - innit? 'Course he ain't bleedin' Turkish. Know any Turks who celebrate Christ's Mass? Ask again at Easter! Blimey, you'll be sayin' he's really a woman next! Anyway, all that stuff about southern Turkey and Bishops in the 4th century AD is b*****ks! It has to be. Anyone who says that must be foreign, innit? So, so, if they're foreign you can't believe anything they say, can yer? Blimey, some people! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtainRaiser Posted December 29, 2021 Author Share Posted December 29, 2021 Brian Kirby - 2021-12-29 12:15 PM CurtainRaiser - 2021-12-28 6:23 PM................................... Isn't it telling that capitalism has taken over Christmas to such an extent that the capitalist depiction of Santa is now considered unquestionable in the minds of so many, while anyone who tried to depict Father Christmas as a Christian Bishop from ancient southern Turkey would face being told that they're wrong by a load of people, and vitriolic accusations from the radically right-wing culture war grifters that they're "pandering" to ethnic minorities. ................................. Nah, and you can't prove any of that. Everyone knows Santa lives in Lapland, innit? Blimey, he travels by sleigh = snow = Lapland. Clue there, innit? Plus, another clue, his sleigh is pulled by bleedin' reindeer = Lapland. Plus, plus, no, listen, Laps are all white, innit? Plus, plus, Lapland is in northern Europe, innit? So, as him and his reindeer are all from bleedin' Lapland, he has to be a white man from northern Europe, innit? Plus, plus, if he was a Turk, he'd be suffering from vitamin D deficiency in bleedin' Lapland, wouldn't he, so no ho, ho, ho - innit? 'Course he ain't bleedin' Turkish. Know any Turks who celebrate Christ's Mass? Ask again at Easter! Blimey, you'll be sayin' he's really a woman next! Anyway, all that stuff about southern Turkey and Bishops in the 4th century AD is b*****ks! It has to be. Anyone who says that must be foreign, innit? So, so, if they're foreign you can't believe anything they say, can yer? Blimey, some people! :-D :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 It's my bet that most Brits care as much about the origin and ethnicity of Santa Claus about as much as they care about the origin and ethnicity of the Easter Bunny. All our ' festive days ' were taken over by the marketing men years ago - and more were invented ( such as Black Friday ) to feed the publics insatiable need to buy ' stuff '. I don't recall when Mothers and Fathers days were invented for the same reason. I'm old enough to remember when Valentines Day was a secretive operation when people sent anonymous cards to someone they fancied - and the fun was guessing who it was from. Since the marketing men took over it has become a serious offence not to buy something for your girlfriend / boyfriend / wife / husband etc. ( and making sure they KNOW who it's from ). Such is life - ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 malc d - 2021-12-29 12:45 PM It's my bet that most Brits care as much about the origin and ethnicity of Santa Claus about as much as they care about the origin and ethnicity of the Easter Bunny. All our ' festive days ' were taken over by the marketing men years ago - and more were invented ( such as Black Friday ) to feed the publics insatiable need to buy ' stuff '. ;-) Very true Malc and the Black Friday nonsense is an American import; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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