Santa Claus, St. Nick, Kris Kringle, all these names describe one holly jolly figure that brings children who celebrate Christmas so much joy. He brings the promise of happiness, of their deepest material desires, of a sense of hope even to families who are struggling to make ends meet.
Santa represents so much positivity, and kids are more than happy to return his same enthusiasm.
They write letters to him with wish lists of what they need, full of thankful language and joyous energy, they wait in line for hours to sit on his lap in malls and tell him what they want for Christmas and why, and to get pictures with him, they help their parents bake and decorate cookies for him so he has a treat when he stops by on Christmas Eve, and they even sprinkle food and glitter so his reindeer can eat and find their way to their houses.
Every company in the united states and around the world cashes in on this character and makes ads featuring everything positive about Christmas, including Santa himself, in a capitalistic cash grab to tug at the heartstrings and make people buy their products.
Santa himself was modernized by capitalism, from the book "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", to the rejuvenation of Christmas as a gift-giving holiday by department stores in the 1820's, as an incentive to create new traditions but also to buy young children expensive toys. Despite this, so much about his character and himself is very much against capitalism.
Santa Claus is (probably) a communist, or at the very least has some strikingly socialist ideologies. Santa Claus himself is based off the legend of St. Nicholas, a man born into a rich family who gave away all of his inherited wealth, became a monk and traveled the countryside giving to the poor and aiding the sick, devoting his life to philanthropic actions.
Even the origin of Mall Santas--which was initially just the bell ringers outside, being away for the Salvation Army to help pay for the free meals and clothes they give away during the holiday season--is at the very least a dedication to charitable actions if not to redistribute the wealth.
But even further than his origin story, the legend of Santa Claus himself goes very much against the grain of capitalism. He owns a factory where his elves work day in and day out to build things, but that's about the point where his similarities to a capitalist corporation owner stop.
His elves are happy, they love building and making toys, and they are paid not in wealth but rather in all the provisions they need to survive. In the elves' case, this means they are housed in the North Pole where Santa lives, fed all sorts of candy (their preferred food), and thanked every single day for all of their hard work.
Not only this, but they are also not working to generate more wealth for anyone at all, rather they are working towards a common end-of-year goal, which is to have enough toys to give presents to every child in the world.
When the end of the year rolls around, they help load everything up in Santa's sack, and he goes and gives everything they've built away to the kids who have wished for it.
Then, he, Mrs. Claus, the elves, and every other creature that lives in the North Pole have a grand feast to celebrate another year of successful work helping children, before they start all over again.
The elves are happy, Santa is happy, his reindeer are happy, and most importantly children from all over the world, no matter their class or wealth status, are happy because of what Santa does.
Nothing produced by him or his workers goes into any one person's pocket, and instead, it is all redistributed to the children every single Christmas.
Beyond this, Santa teaches a positive lesson. He tells all the children to be kind and good and to be responsible. He puts them on lists of Naughty and Nice, and he gives not only presents but also full stockings to the Nice children. But he doesn't leave the Naughty children empty-handed, no matter what it is they've done to be Naughty. He gives them lumps of coal!
I know that doesn't sound very fun, and that may sound like he's judging them, and he is because he wants everyone to live their lives as he does, with love and kindness in his heart and a humanitarian mission in his soul.
But he isn't saying they're worthless, being on the Naughty list is not permanent, and he is giving them a valuable, expensive natural resource for free even though they were Naughty. Granted, I'm sure the coal was much more appreciated in the 1820's than it is now, but the sentiment still stands that everyone is included.
So, for all of these reasons, from his origin to his presence in society, to the way he operates, to the lessons he teaches. From the kindness of his heart to the equality he believes in.
From the way he respects and praises his workers, to the way he gives away everything he works towards, you can see that while Santa may be an invention of the capitalist world, he himself is most likely (probably) a communist.
