Santa is a bad role model for children and needs to lose weight, according to a wide-spread sentiment that has even reached the professional Santa community. A sample:
As the obesity epidemic has swollen, some public health experts have cast an increasingly critical eye on Santa's sprawl. Two years ago, acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson said Santa's corpulence was setting a bad example. His remarks prompted howls of protest, with more than a few people accusing Galson of being politically correct in trying to make Santa physiologically correct.
An opposing expert opinion comes from Andrea Vazzana, a psychologist who specializes in weight management at New York University's Child Study Center. She says a svelte Santa "would be great for Santa, but I don't think children would benefit. The children who are believers in Santa, in that age range, they don't have a whole lot of say in what they eat."
Eating cookies that a billion or so children left for him would indeed put a strain on the waistline. Especially since he eats them all in one night.
UPDATE: In answer to Dan Kempin, a forensic reconstruction of the physically fit, non-smoking, fur-free Santa:
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Didn’t Santa smoke a pipe, too? Whatever happened to that?
I suppose the next step for the skinny, pipeless Santa is to eliminate his use of fur, and now that I think of it, that red nose might be a sign of alcoholic excess.
Say, could you come up with one of those computer generated images for what the politically correct St. Nick would look like?
I see the rotund Santa as a sign of the way that the celebration of Christmas has been transformed. The current vision of Santa is much more a reflection of commericalized, greedy Christmas than of the historical figure. So, I would have no problem with making him skinnier, but I think it’s silly to think he sets a role model in that way.
I nominate your Jack LaLanne image as the funniest thing I’ve read on your blog this year, Dr. Veith. Way to tie in multiple references, along with a pop-culture nod!
I do wonder how Santa became fat, given that most representations of St. Nicholas aren’t notably overweight. But then, I wonder how Santa got a lot of his qualities.
Of course, I still think that the main vice Santa promotes is greed. Not entirely his fault, sure, but it is the most glaring of the sins one could blame on him.
Santa needs to be a bit chubby. When you live in the North you tend to pack on the pounds in order to keep warm. In the 25 years I’ve lived in Canada (Edmonton) I’ve put on twenty pounds. With the temperature currently hovering around 0 degrees Fahrenheit, it helps. Even moreso a couple of weeks ago when it dropped to -50 F.
Dr. Veith: In keeping with the commercialized Santa theme of your blog there are children who are aware of the real meaning of Christmas and are not afraid to speak out in public. I want to share with you and your readers an e-mail my sister in law received from a friend. The e-mail reads as follows:
I wanted to share with you a Christmas song, “Where is the line to see Jesus”. A high school friend of Lauren’s records songs with his cousins for family and friends at Christmas and gives them as gifts. This year one of the children in the family asked while standing in line to see Santa why there wasn’t a line to see Jesus. The dad was inspired by his grandson to write this song and record with his daughter. The cousins recorded and produced this video. The singer is Becky Haupt Kelly from Lindbergh HS 98′. I believe the clip is filmed in Crestwood Mall in Crestwood,Mo.
I hope you enjoy the song it is beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPViKJRHyZo
tODD, we’ll do the year’s wrap up for New Year’s, but I thank you. I was hoping somebody would catch who that is. The thing is, Jack LaLanne is almost as old as Santa. (Well, closer than most people.) I believe he was 93 when that picture was taken.
As I understand it, the fat Santa was invented out of whole cloth (quite a lot of it) by Clement Moore in the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” The inspiration is said to have been his Dutch gardener, who told him stories of the Dutch St. Nicholas traditions.
The illustrations of Thomas Nast sealed the image in the public mind.
I had a skinny grandma and a fat grandma. The fat grandma was generous, loving, and kind, and asked nothing in return. I say those qualities are what should be focused on rather than body size, but that’s today’s mindset.
Santa is a pipe smoking fattie that exploits a minority workforce to create toys that he distributes based on his subjective value system. He’s like the PC anti-Christ
Ah, this reminds me of the Cookie Monster being tortured by way of telling children that a cookie is a “sometimes” food. WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END!? No skinny guy has a big, booming voice (as far as I know).
We leave Santa a bottle of beer at our house.
Can you imagine the havoc caused on Christmas Eve if everyone followed suit?
Any allegations of obesity would almost seem secondary!
St. Nicholas of Smyrna was not a heavy man, and was likely a well-disciplined asetic.
I much prefer the thin, bearded St. Nicholas I saw one year at a Chaldean Catholic Christmas pageant.