If you could “rebrand” Santa for 2018 tastes, what would you do? Would you trade his sleigh for a magic Tesla? How about replacing that big red coat with some holly-jolly tattoo sleeves?
Those are some of the the questions GraphicSprings asked 4,000 people across the United States and the United Kingdom for a survey on how a “modern” Santa would look if he were to be rebranded for 2018.
“We all imagine Santa as the bearded old man in his iconic white and red suit, black belt, matching boots and reindeer drawn sleigh. But what if Father Christmas was rebranded for today? We asked people how they would modernize Santa. Based on the results, we’ve updated Santa’s winter wardrobe and transformed his transportation. In it, he ditches his iconic suit and adopts some skinny jeans, trainers, and a hover-board to name just a few,” the company wrote.
The vast majority of people surveyed wanted Santa kept just as he is. But there were some who thought he could use some tweaks.
- About 17 percent of people thought Santa should be gender-neutral.
- About 11 percent of people thought Santa should be a woman.
- 22 percent thought he should ditch his sleigh for a flying car.
- 23 percent thought he should try Amazon Prime.
- 20 percent thought he should hit up a tattoo parlor.
- 18 percent wanted him to try on some skinny jeans.
You can find all the questions and results here.
The idea of a female Santa already caused a stir in 2018 when Arun Chandran, a councilor in Newton Aycliffe in the U.K., opposed having a female Santa in a Christmas parade, according to The Times.
“My understanding is that Santa Claus, otherwise called Father Christmas, is a male role. I have no issue with a Mrs Claus. But Santa Claus being a man is a long-held tradition accepted by the vast majority of society,” he said, according to the paper.
Some supported the idea, however — or at least the fact that people were considering the idea.
“Let them know that anyone can be ‘Santa’,” said LGBT identity coach Gina Battye, according to BBC Three. “With my niece and nephew, this is how I’ve explained it to them. When we see Santa in stores, I tell them that he can’t be everywhere talking to all the little children — so some Santas are male, some female, some trans, and some we don’t know. But they all act as Santa’s messengers.”
Santa is no stranger to debate over his appearance.
In 2016, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune had to shut down its comment section because of a flood of racist remarks after it reported on the first black Santa taking up the role at the Mall of America.
Santa’s weight has been an issue as well. A head-turning 2009 paper in the British Medical Journal criticized Santa’s “rotund sedentary image” and charged that his “behaviour and public image are at odds with contemporary accepted public health messages.”
But in an editorial for the science publisher PLOS, Peter Janiszewski defended Santa’s weight, saying “when discrimination against obese individuals is already rampant, and the large majority of the population is overweight or obese – it may not be a bad idea to have a public character who remains in good spirits despite his expanded waistline.”