Who Says Santa Claus Has to Be White?

Settling the Santa Claus race question, one chimney at a time.

ByABC News
December 24, 2013, 2:36 PM
In this Dec. 17, 2013 photo, Dee Sinclair, portraying Santa Claus, reads a story to children in Atlanta. "Kids don't see color. They see a fat guy in a red suit giving toys," says Sinclair.
In this Dec. 17, 2013 photo, Dee Sinclair, portraying Santa Claus, reads a story to children in Atlanta. "Kids don't see color. They see a fat guy in a red suit giving toys," says Sinclair.
John Bazemore/AP Photo

Dec. 24, 2013 — -- Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus ... we just can't agree on his race.

From cable news to the hallways of a New Mexican public school, good tidings of great joy have been replaced with a debate on whether Santa Claus is white.

Everyone pretty much agrees on the red suit, a reasonably modern invention, and the belly that shakes like "a bowlful of jelly." But some people (some white people, anyway) insist that the Turkey-born patron of children, thieves and pawnbrokers (that's the real St. Nicholas) is as white as the snow on which he grounds his sleigh.

Here then, are just a few of the many faces of Santa, a group as diverse as the children who believe that as certainly as reindeer can fly, "Love and generosity and devotion exist."

In this Dec. 17, 2013 photo, Dee Sinclair, portraying Santa Claus, reads a story to children in Atlanta. "Kids don't see color. They see a fat guy in a red suit giving toys," says Sinclair.
South Korean senior volunteers, clad in Santa Clause costumes, pose for a picture during a chairty event on December 15, 2009.
An Indian man and a pair of children dressed as Santa Claus ride a motorcycle along a street of Ahmedabad, December 21, 2006.
Reflected in a mirror, a public bus driver dressed as Santa Claus gives a passenger directions on Dec. 18, 2013, in Taipei, Taiwan.
A man dressed as Santa Claus rides his bicycle with other hundreds along the streets of Cali, Colombia, on December 12, 2010 in a failed attempt to break the previous Guinness record of 12,000 people riding bikes dressed as Santa Claus.

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