1902: Modern Santa
December 17, 2019
By AHNZ
An enduring myth that Coke invented Santa keeps coming up.
We’re living in ‘Mauve’ times, a prelude to a Physical Culture history cycle which ‘grows up’ to become Honour Culture. As such, masculinity and femininity are questioned and confused merged these days. For a little while yet, we are living in experimental and uncertain times.
Out of this, the nature of Father Christmas has been questioned, even here in New Zealand. This year some towns have made him a woman, some have pointed at a generic Maori and said “this is Santa!”
Organisers of Nelson’s Sunday Santa Parade have apologised for replacing their traditional Santa with Hana Kōkō.
Santa Parade Trust event director Mark Soper said the trust was “truly sorry that the parade did not live up to expectations, and are saddened to hear so many people were disappointed”.- Nelson Santa Parade organisers apologise for Māori Santa; Stuff (2018)
The following year, 2019, a toned-down Maori Santa (aka Hana Koko) was used again but this time shared the central role with the traditional Santa. The non-toned down Maori Santa also appeared again, this time in Wellington’s Aro Valley (surprise surprise..) but also alongside Santa.¹
Perhaps, by asking for more than they ever wanted, the Hana Koko faction have achieved political success. The new bicultural Santa parade has now been cemented and it will be perceived as a fair compromise rather than the revolutionary revisionist Politically Correct Christmas it really is! Anyway, the argument might go, traditional Santa is nothing but a figment of Cocacola’s marketing department. He’s an icon of public relations, not genuine culture. However, this is a myth.
“..not the creation of the Coca Cola Company. Although their Christmas advertising campaigns of the 1930s and 40s were key to popularising the image, Santa can be seen in his modern form decades before Coca Cola’s illustrator..”- The Public Domain Review
Santa is actually based on a Pagan European tradition of Saturnalia and on back into our Oriental heritage back and back…
The attack on Santa employs what has become a very common tactic of Post Modern Man: To attack the authenticity, specifically by producing counterfeits and saying they’re just as good. If nobody can answer that (reasonable) question then runaway inflation occurs and the tradition and institution is lost: r-selected apocalypse occurs.
The best that Coke did was sponsor an artist who encapsulated and expressed the Santa figure everyone had in mind for this yearly event anyway. This end-of-year festival is older than any culture alive today and cannot be “invented” only expressed. It’s almost as silly as saying that Coca Cola invented social hierarchy² or sexual reproduction or the conception of the afterlife…
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Image ref. Cover of L. Frank Baum’s 1902 book, The Life and Adventures Of Santa Claus showing Santa long before the 1920s. Many more images at The Public Domain Review show the same, going back to the middle of the C19th
1 Ref. Traditional Santa returns to Nelson Santa Parade, as does Hana Kōkō; Stuff
2 Which, as we all know, goes back at least as far as lobsters
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