Black Santa and his elf Kon-El are visited by twins Zion and Zander Springer, right, at the Old's Cool General Store in East York, Ont. on Dec. 7, 2019.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
There were eight centimetres of exposed skin between the top of Santa’s socks and his plush red pants last year. They were too short, and he’d forgotten until he put them on in the basement storage room of Old’s Cool General Store in East Toronto. He would be greeting children in 10 minutes looking as if there’d been a flood at the North Pole.
“Thank God I put lotion on today because last year they had an ashy Santa!” he said with a laugh that made his dreadlocks sway.
Government-issued ID suggests his name is Allister Thomas, but as far as anyone who saw him Saturday was concerned, he’s Black Santa.
For shop owner Zahra Dhanani, her friend’s jolly temperament and espresso skin made him the obvious choice for the gig.
“What shocks me is in 2019, no matter where you go, all the Santas are white," she said. “Children need to see themselves mirrored back."
Stephen Arnold, president of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas, which has more than 2,000 members, estimates that fewer than 15 of his members are racialized. When asked via e-mail why that is, he was blunt: “Every possible person [who is] not currently a Santa I have approached didn’t think that white people would be receptive of a Black Santa.”
But the crowd at Old’s Cool challenged that notion. Most families that day were black, but the crowd looked similar to one you’d see at a downtown subway station: white and brown and East Asian and mixed. The shop’s progressive ethos attracted many LGBTQ parents and their kids too.
Black Santa’s go-to poses with older visitors are the peace-out sign, the dap (the black handshake) and the black-power fist. He explained that he doesn’t have a white beard because he’s young. Come back in 20 years, he said.
He had recruited his son Kon-El, 7, to play an elf. Kon-El distributed candy canes, danced manically and posed for photos with other people’s children – until being gently scolded by his father to step aside.
Six-year-old Olivia McArthur, who is black, immediately noticed that this Santa looked different from others. He asked her and her little sister, Tamar, what they wanted for Christmas (Shopkins Kindi Kid and Peppa Pig, respectively). Now when she draws pictures of him, she said, there’ll be the standard features – “hat, beard, red suit" – but when she does his face, she’ll colour it “brown.”
Black Santa has a range of techniques for producing a passable photo with his most reluctant visitors. He’ll get families to cluster around his chair without him. At the last minute, he steps back into the frame. If a child is crying or frowning, he mimics their expression.
But one customer was impervious to all his best material.
Jaia Messam’s parents took her to the mall for the past two years – standard-issue old white guy, elaborate set with presents everywhere, smile, click, done. Jaia was born Christmas Day, 2016, so the photos have become an important tradition.
She recently started wrapping her hair, which is in tight coils, in a towel after coming out of the shower. When her father, former CFL player Jerome Messam, asked why, she said, “I want long hair like Elsa, I want pretty hair like Elsa,” referring to one of the main characters in the Frozen animated films.
“They say kids don’t see colour, but when you’re a minority, you kinda do see colour because you don’t see anybody represented like you,” Mr. Messam said.
He and his partner, Gillian Perera, have introduced their daughter to books and shows with black protagonists, but they can’t compete with mainstream content, in which white faces dominate. Maybe seeing Black Santa would normalize a black version of such a beloved figure, they thought.
They arrived at the store with only 15 minutes left in Black Santa’s hours. Mr. Messam could tell that his daughter, in a grey velvet dress and black Mary Janes, was uncomfortable. “Jaia, you have to,” he whisper-hissed while holding her. “This is important. Dad’s never seen a Black Santa before.”
As they advanced in the line, she wrapped her legs tighter around her father’s midsection.
Deposited in Santa’s lap, she reacted to the betrayal with a tantrum. They got in and out of the line many times with Ms. Perera close behind, a DSLR camera around her neck.
In the end, an hour after they arrived – and with Santa working considerable overtime – there were some salvageable photos.
Mr. Messam felt guilty about pushing Jaia. But even if it means wearing the costume himself, he’s decided the only Santa his daughter will be photographed with is a black one.
On the ride home, Jaia was still traumatized.
“Dad, I want white Santa," she whined. “I’m scared of Black Santa.”
This might take a few years.