Settling the Santa Claus race question, one chimney at a time.
By
RUSSELL GOLDMAN
December 24, 2013, 2:36 PM ET
• 4 min read
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."