Christmas around the World: Santa Claus

The countries we have lived in, Christian, Muslim, and atheist, all do have an awareness of Christmas. However, the pervading presence is not Baby Jesus, but rather Santa Claus.  Even the Christian churches in Taiwan more often had a mural of Santa and his reindeers splashed across the front of the platform, rather than a nativity scene. Christmas parades always included more Santas than anything else.

Here, there are few decorations, but in our apartment complex which is mainly for foreigners, Santa’s face is taped to all of our entry ways. The ones in English state, “Christmas” with “Merry” written in small letters underneath. There is a very nicely decorated tree in the reception area, which is appreciated.

Probably the place that the use of Santa was the most jarring was in Senegal. This is a Muslim country, but one of the tribes is Catholic, and Christianity is tolerated. (We got all the Muslim holidays, and also all the Christian holidays. What’s not to like?) Near Christmas we often met Santa figures on street corners trying to entice us into stores. The jarring factor was not that they were Black. (That was a rather delightful factor.) But rather that they were emaciatingly thin. I think I could have fit my hands around some of the wide black belts at their waists. This factor was so anti-, not just the embodiment of jolly, fat Santa, but the whole abundance we celebrate at Christmas. Maybe it is a good reminder of the meagerness of a baby laying in a manger. I also was very reminded of a question I would pose to my college students in Zambia.

At the intro to my child development /psych course in Zambia, I would pose the question: “If you were told that you are sick and going to die in 6 weeks. You will be healthy up to the end, though. What would you do?” The intent was to find out what were some of the things that were the most important to them. Every year, about a third of them answered, “I would eat as much as I could.” I still quote this with tears in my eyes. I interpret it to mean that about a 1/3 of the students had never had the privilege of eating as much as they wanted to. How convicting for us when we think of our Christmas abundance.