Santa Claus is a genuine icon of popular culture. Yet, very few people know the story of his origin. His strange myth was created by combining ancestral pagan rites with the legend of a Turkish Saint, St. Nicholas, whom held incredible powers. After his remains were brought back to Italy and France, St. Nicholas became a patron Saint of many European cities and a protector of children. Every year, on December 6, he would parade the streets, giving away sweets and gifts to the good kids. In the Netherlands, he was named Sinterklaas. The settlers brought him to America with them. In the 1800s, in New Amsterdam, later renamed New York City, two poets and a caricaturist invented the modern Santa Claus.
Since then, Santa Claus has had incredible success as a bearer of gifts and champion of children. He’s invaded every corner of the world, becoming a hero of consumerism, department stores and bourgeois homes. He’s become so popular that he was even exploited by the Nazi regime during WWII and the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.
Today, Santa Claus is a secular figure taking a central place at the heart of a religious celebration. Yet, this icon of a bourgeois and consumerist society has not always been adored as he is today. In a poor neighborhood in Dijon, in 1951 an effigy of Santa Claus was burned in front of a cathedral, after being accused of taking the place of Jesus for Christmas. What prompted that rejection and what other oppositions does he still face today?
Genre: History, Society, Documentary
Director: Axel Clevenot & Julien Boustani
Production: French Connection Films & France Télévision
Year: 2020
Length: 52 minutes
Languages : English, French
Partners: French Film Board (CNC), Procirep, ANGOA & La Poste Foundation
Broadcasters: France 3, Toute l’Histoire (France), ICI RDI (Canada), TVE (Spain), ICI Grands Reportages (Canada), RTV (Slovenia), Deutsche Welle, Telefonica Audiovisual (Spain)
Distributor: Mediawan Rights
English
Français