You know how some people have strong feelings about when Christmas music should start playing? Well, some people also have very strong feelings about exactly how Santa Claus should look. HBO has a new documentary called “Santa Camp”. A group put together a school to train Santas. Part of what they want to do is help bring out Santas that are more like specific groups of people like disabled, ethnicities, and transgender. They wanted Santas that people could be more comfortable around.
People were not happy. As in protesting and hate mail. But, there are a lot of happy people in the documentary too.
Before people make judgments, I would point out that in the early days of Santa Claus, he was pretty scary looking. If you look at the typical early 1900s advertising, he looks mean. If you go back further to the paintings of him in the 1800s, he looks kind of evil, like he would rather eat kids than cookies. And in the 1700s, he was portrayed more like a priest. It wasn’t until the 1950s or so that he took on the image that we think of today with the bright smile. You can watch “Santa Camp” on HBO max starting November 17th.