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Posts tagged as “Black Santa”

Designer Debra L. Mars Offers HBCU Santas and Black Nutcrackers for the Holidays

Designer and long-time Black Santa collector Debra L. Mars has added her own contribution to the canon by partnering with several HBCUs to offer Black Santas this holiday season.

The Inglewood, CA resident and entrepreneur has created Black Santas repping Howard University, Morehouse College, Grambling and FAMU, in addition to offering Black nutcrackers, Santa-themed bracelets and other holiday swag through her etsy.com store, Restore The Hope.

Mars, who has worked in marketing and supplier diversity for Frito-Lay, began collecting Black Santas over 35 years ago.

“I traveled the country and would pick them up whenever I saw them, especially in the Southern states,” Mars said. “My fascination came about when I reflected on how my mother only had one childhood toy; it was a white doll that looked nothing like her—that was triggering for me.”

Debra L. Mars (photo courtesy Debra L. Mars)

Designing and selling Black Santas is about more than the bottom line for Mars.”[It’s] more about storytelling than the product itself. They are designed as triggers to hopefully remind people what a precious gift they are to this world,” Mars said.

“The Santa to me is symbolic of spiritual gifts and talents rather than what’s in the box under the tree. It saddens me that so many people feel worthless and undervalued. That is why our branding tagline for the Black Santa Cause Collective is ‘unwrap your gifts’.”

Mars also has a goal to align and partner with other creators to tell the Santa “Cause” story.

“I am most proud of a woman I found who is exclusively making Black Santa leather bracelets for our line,” Mars stated. “Each one is hand crafted and features a lighter skinned and darker skinned Black Santa in the design to communicate the variety of melanin in the African American race. This alliance with her has created a stream of supplemental income for her and more importantly, a clear validation of her gifts and talents.”

Even though she’s had to work through several obstacles and supply chain challenges, Mars feels she is finally dwelling in her passion.

“This dream was planted in me over 25 years ago to create this line. This has been a master class on perseverance. Having the opportunity to represent our sacred jewels: The HBCUs is an honor that I do not take lightly,” Mars said.

“When I did the research on the game changers that attended these iconic institutions from Thurgood Marshall to Kamala Harris to Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson, I am so proud and a little remorseful that I did not attend a HBCU.”

“Find Black Santa” App Helps Families Locate Black Santas Across U.S. and Abroad

Find Black Santa App created by Jihan Woods (photo via findblacksanta.com)

According to wthr.com, after having trouble finding a Santa Claus her sons could relate to, Dallas psychiatrist Jihan Woods decided to make sure others wouldn’t encounter the same problem.

In 2018, she created a Kickstarter campaign raising some $5,000 in 30 days. The result was a very special app called “Find Black Santa.”

“After several years of trying to find a Santa that was relatable – that my children could identify with, I realized that kind of all over the U.S., but specifically in Dallas, I wasn’t able to find a Santa that represented our family,” Woods explained.

The app lists Santas in 35 states and Washington, D.C. – from Oregon, to one in the Mall of America, and as far south as Florida. She’s even located them in London, Canada, and Amsterdam.

Since creating the app, organizations have reached out to Woods to tell her about their black Santas. And black Santas have asked her to list them for events.

To find Black Santa, click here.

To read more: https://www.wthr.com/article/app-helps-families-search-black-santa

 

Black Santa, For the First Time Ever, Comes to Mall of America in Minnesota

Larry Jefferson is the first black Santa in the 24-year history of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. (STAR TRIBUNE SCREENSHOT)

article by Monique Judge via theroot.com
For the first time in its 24-year history, Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., had a black Santa on hand to help spread holiday cheer Thursday.
“This is a long time coming,” Landon Luther, co-owner of the Santa Experience, which has run the intimate photo studio at the mall for years, told the Star Tribune. “We want Santa to be for everyone, period.”
Customers at the Mall of America have two Santa options to choose from: They can wait in line with everyone else at the mall for the free Santa, or they can book an appointment with the Santa Experience. The Star Tribune reports that Luther conducted a national search last spring for a Santa to whom children of color would be able to relate. Santa Sid, who has worked at the Mall of America for 20 years, met Larry Jefferson of Irving, Texas, at a Santa convention in Branson, Mo. Of the 1,000 Santa impersonators in attendance, Jefferson was the only black one.
“It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” Luther said.
Jefferson, dressed as Santa Larry, will greet children, pass out candy and pose for photographs by appointment only from Thursday to Sunday.
To read more, got to: For 1st Time Ever, a Black Santa Comes to Mall of America in Minn.

Special African-American Santa Holds Court At Macy’s in NYC

Macy's Special Santa
Crowds in the know come to see a special African-American Santa at Macy’s in Herald Square. (Credit: CBS 2)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Crowds in the know have been drawn to Macy’s to see the “special Santa,” an African-American Santa Claus tucked away in Santaland at the Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square.  As CBS 2’s Tracee Carrasco reported, the special Santa only appears by request. But he was the sole reason Elizabeth Kittles and her family made the trip from the Bronx Monday night.  “I could have gone anywhere,” Kittles said, “but I came right here to Macy’s because I knew they had an African-American Santa.”

When they reach the front of the line, parents must ask to see the special Santa. But Kittles said he is like a secret Santa to many.  “There was plenty of African-American families that didn’t know, and when I did tell them, one guy said, ‘They have a black Santa?’ (I said), ‘Yeah they do,’” Kittles said.  Kittles, who has been bringing her sons to see the special Santa at Macy’s for 10 years now, wishes the store would make sure more families know.
“An elf just told me as I was going through Santaland,” Kittles said. “It’s great that they have that option, but it would be great if they put it out there either on the visitors’ website or when they advertise when Santaland is open.”  Other parents who spoke to CBS 2 did not know about the special Santa either, but agreed with Kittles.  “I think it would mean a lot to some people; would make a difference for some people,” said Danielle Moriello of Linden, N.J. “It doesn’t matter what color he is.”
“It wouldn’t confuse the kids at all,” added Rafael Mendoza of Washington Heights. “It’s just the way you raise them up.” CBS 2 reached out to Macy’s for a comment about their special Santa. They responded, “Santa is all things to all who believe.”
article via newyork.cbslocal.com

Black Santa Brings Spirit and Cheer at South Los Angeles Mall

Jahleel Logan, 3, poses with Santa, a.k.a. Langston Patterson, 77, of Rudolph Holiday Photo, at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Dec. 7, 2013. Patterson has been Santa at the Plaza since 2004, with African American families coming at specific times of the day, just to visit him. "I just don't want him to think that all greatness comes from a different race," said Logan's godmother, Arlene Graves, 45. "There are Santa Clauses his color doing good work too." (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Jahleel Logan, 3, poses with Santa, a.k.a. Langston Patterson, 77, at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Dec. 7, 2013. Patterson has been Santa at the Plaza since 2004, with African American families coming at specifically just to visit him. “I just don’t want him to think that all greatness comes from a different race,” said Logan’s godmother, Arlene Graves, 45. “There are Santa Clauses his color doing good work too.” (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Dressed in a red Santa suit, white beard and rimless glasses balanced on his nose, Langston Patterson sits on a velvet couch and waits for his adoring fans.  Some call first to make sure he will be there. They come from Palmdale, Thousand Oaks and San Bernardino, driving past many shopping malls with Santas, but none that look like him.  For nearly a decade, Patterson has been the main attraction at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza during Christmastime: a rare black Santa Claus in a sea of white ones.

The mall, located in the heart of black Los Angeles, is one of the few in the country with a black Santa Claus. Some say Patterson is the only black shopping-mall Santa Claus in the Los Angeles area.  As visitors approached him on a recent afternoon, it was hard to tell who was more excited: the youngsters or the adults. The parents are the most loyal. They return with grandchildren, passing on a family tradition with a deep personal meaning.
“We need our kids to understand that good things happen in chocolate skin,” said Til Prince, 50, of Palmdale, watching her granddaughter, niece and her niece’s son pose with Patterson. “We are often bombarded with the opposite. We’re not trying to exclude anybody, but [instead] celebrate our chocolate skin.”