Decolonising Father Christmas - let's do it!

[IdaGlossop]

So much heartache over what I have learnt from reading this blog post 🤣 Seriously? https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discovery/history-stories/decolonising-father-christmas/ I love Brighton but this post poanders to its superwoke stereotype.

YABU = parents should follow the guidance given in this post and decolonise Father Christmas, introduce Mother Christmas to challenge the patriarchy, do away with the patriarchal, colonised dichotomy of naughty/nice children, point out that we owe thanks to Sami people for reindeer, and have Santa muck in with the elves to show no-one is better than anyone else.

YANBU = Father Christmas provides harmless fun for small children and is part of the magic of Christmas. It's one of our traditions and is fine just as it is.

I feel like the naughty/nice thing has never been particularly emphasised outside of that one weird song.

Ok I've read the article. When it talks about indigenous people, they forget that we must have had thousands of years of tradition here in the UK, based around nature and the seasons and sadly most of us have lost that connection. Scotland and Ireland have possibly hung on to some old traditions more successfully than England has been able to. Our children need their roots too.

Honestly couldn't work out whether this was a parody.

Had to check that it's a genuine website.

They seem to be advertising something called 'A Very Austen Christmas' at the Brighton Pavilion. Goodness knows how that is even allowed.

@ConcernedOfClapham
same here!

My 2.5 year old Grandson put everyone except me on the nice list. ‘You, GranGran are on the very naughty list! ‘ I am wearing this with pride.

Anyway Santa Claus n his red and white is a commercial creation by Coca Cola.
Christmas when I last looked is a Christian religion that originated in the Middle East and Father Christmas is derived from St Nicholas hence he is male.
The problem for me with decolonisation talk is that it in itself is a form of neo colonialism as it usually led by the west, has a western focus and does not seem to recognise the discrimination and oppression that exists in other societies who seem to exist as an ideological utopia.

Edited as quote didn’t pull through

Can something this patronising be described as woke - or is that what makes it woke?

Where does West start🙈

It doesn't have to be either / or. We are big Father Christmas fans in our house but we don't do any of the naughty / nice list shit, which I think is horrible. Who really wants to teach their kids that some children don't deserve presents? Whenever my son hears about the naughty list from others I say it's something adults joke about but it's not real. I think it's fine and interesting / fun to learn about thinks like the Sami, kids love that kind of thing and it doesn't detract from any of the magic or fun.

As usual with these things there will be a few gammons in white-knuckle rage about Christmas Tradition™️ being eroded by wokeism (conveniently ignoring the fact that most of these dearly cherished traditions are only a few decades old and were probably invented by Coca Cola) but most people will have an interesting chat with their children about Christmas around the world and then move on with their day.