A People's Guide to Santa Claus

By Joe Biel and Elly Blue

Santa's underbelly

It began as a simple question: why are kids around the world taught to believe that a mythical figure in a red coat is real and breaking into their home on Christmas Eve? The truth turns out to be complicated, contentious, sometimes silly, often gruesome, and far, far weirder than you ever guessed. 

Take a humorous, critical deep dive into the competing histories behind Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Saint Nick, or his many other names. Boggle your mind with nerdy 4th-century arguments about the true date of Jesus's birth, the grisly miracles of St. Nicholaus of Myra, the kidnapping of Krampus by Austrian fascists, the racial politics of Civil Rights era mall Santas, the age-old debate over whether or not Christmas was a pagan holiday that got co-opted by the church, and a cameo appearance by the Easter Bunny.

A wickedly perfect family holiday dinner conversation-starter for the mischievous skeptic, the real value of this zine is its glimpse into the messy, inconsistent, contested ways that humans create truly weird traditions and how they evolve over centuries to get even weirder.