Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: SantasJustLikeMe.

Last season, Elizabeth Chang and Lateshia Beachum had a story at the Washington Post about finding a Santa of your child’s ethnicity. I’ve been saving it up.

“Shortly after noon on a winter Friday, a group of families line up to see one of the Washington, D.C. area’s most sought-after celebrities, a superstar they tracked to the center court of a suburban Maryland shopping mall.

“That luminary, enthroned on a bright-green couch and surrounded by giant red-and-gold packages, is Black Santa.

“This particular Black Santa — at the Mall at Prince George’s, in the majority-Black county of the same name — was ‘the only one I could find,’ said Erin Heard. She traveled there from neighboring D.C. with her husband, Correll Heard, and their 3-year-old son, Micah, who turned out to be a bit trepidatious of the jolly old elf.

“Correll said that when he was young, Santa was ‘just an old White guy with a beard. I don’t think I really thought about it.’ But after you become a parent, he said, ‘you want to see your child see someone who looks like him doing the same things other people do.’

“Although the D.C. metropolitan region is very diverse, with Caucasians making up less than half the population, there is a serious dearth of non-White St. Nicks. Victoria Clark, marketing director for the mall, said that Black Santa has been a staple there for decades, attracting a lot of returning families. ‘It’s a big draw to have an African American Santa,’ she said.

“Kiaira Reeves was there with her almost-1-year-old son, Kalani. ‘Representation is very important to me,’ she said. ‘We even went to Target and got wrapping paper with Black Santa.’ …

“Research into diversity in media suggests that minority children who see Santas who look like them can feel increased self-confidence and self-esteem, said Nekeshia Hammond, a psychologist in Brandon, Fla., while White children benefit by experiencing cultural diversity.  ‘Representation does positively affect children,’ she said.

“But there is a long way to go until Black Santas are easy to find. Parents seek Black Santas through online groups, their network of friends, TikTok videos from parents who have found one. …

“Edwina Walker thought living in predominantly Black Prince George’s County meant it would be easy to give her grandson the same experience she had as a child, when her own grandmother took her to meet a Black Santa in a mall in New Jersey. … But when Walker started to look for a Black Santa near her Oxon Hill home, she came up short. Eventually, she consulted a national Facebook group for people trying to find a Black Santa and drove nearly an hour to Columbia, Md., for the photo. …

“Houston and other areas of Texas have Pancho Claus. The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District offers a visit from an Asian Santa. The Disney theme parks introduced Black Santas last year, to acclaim.

“The Mall of America near Minneapolis — the largest mall in the country — is perhaps leading the charge. This year, The Santa Experience there has had its most diverse lineup ever with six Santas: two Black, one Asian who speaks Cantonese and three White, one of whom speaks Spanish.

“ ‘It just makes sense,’ said Lando Luther, who owns the two Santa Experience locations at the mall. ‘There are so many different cultures that celebrate Christmas. And we believe that representation matters, and for a child to see themselves in such a positive figure is important.’ ”

More at the Post, here.