Wannabe Santas battle old, conservative traditions in the thought-provoking Christmas doco Santa Camp. Eliza Janssen re-examines the reason for the season.
Close your eyes and picture Santa. You’re probably seeing a fluffy white beard, a red suit, a chonky physique. But there’s other qualities to ol’ Saint Nick that might be invisible to most holidayers by now, after decades of Hollywood movies and Coca-Cola ads.
He’s normally, namely, a He—the cisgendered male main character of the season, with Mrs. Claus standing at the sidelines as his obedient wife. He’s white. He’s able-bodied, with the average body and abilities of a middle-aged guy who somehow eats billions of cookies from homes every year.
These accepted standards of festive normativity make Santa Camp a thought-provoking watch, during the Christmas season or perhaps as a post-Yuletide tonic. HBO’s feature-length documentary follows the merry admin of a New England workshop, where mall Santas from across the US gather to hone their ho-ho-hos.
Released in 2022, the film focuses on three new Claus wannabes: Chris, who received hate mail after displaying a Black Santa on his lawn, transman Levi who wishes he’d had queer holiday role models to look up to in his own childhood, and Fin, a young differently-abled guy with spina bifida and a serious Santa obsession. All three newcomers to the typically snow-white, heteronormative world of Christmas celebration offer a challenge to the bearded blokes and apron-wearing ladies of the long-running camp.
This was a weird one to revisit with my parents this holiday season. I loved watching the documentary last year, and was curious what their take would be on director Nick Sweeney’s attempts to diversify our image of Santa. My folks are pretty progressive, but they were quick to defend the OG establishment Santas when their attempts at inclusion came off as a tad clumsy. Black Santa Chris is disappointed when a white workshop leader fumbles to address the racial elephant in the room; queer couple Levi and Heidi wince at outdated language in a lecture about Mrs. Claus’s doting responsibilities to Santa Claus.
It can be tough to see the “classic” Santas try and fail to welcome these underrepresented Santas into the fold. They’re trying their best, to be fair! But the social experiment pays off in big, heart-warming ways. During a meeting of Mrs. Claus actors, Heidi is outspoken about preferring to be called Dr. Claus, and an air of tension settles over the room…until other women speak up, admitting they’ve got bones to pick with the stuffy marital mythos, too. One lady just really wants to wear pants rather than a fur-trimmed red dress. Sweeney’s camera captures the painful yet liberating process of inclusion, proving that when outsiders speak up for their own equality, everyone feels more free to be themselves in turn.
“Santa Claus is just an idea”, one older white guy tearfully realises midway through the film, saying that “the look in a kids eyes” when they see themselves represented in their holiday hero is really “what it’s all about”. By the time the summer camp has concluded and Christmas rolls around, the community of Santa performers appear more united and open to change than ever. Can the rest of the carol-singing world get on board? Well, yes and no.
The documentary’s final act shows the fruits of our three new Santas’ labour coming in to harvest. Fin is hired to ride atop a sleigh at his city’s holiday festival, his mother and sister weeping with joy as they watch his dream come true. Chris is heartened by the Black “solidarity Santas” that spring up across his neighbourhood, seeing that his hometown is open to a Santa that looks like him. Alas, perhaps predictably given the vicious anti-trans hatred being legislated and platformed across the US lately, trans Santa Levi faces the most hostility.
In a chilling and intense scene, Levi and Heidi are in the midst of greeting queer kids at their holiday celebration when a faction of alt-right Proud Boys show up, loudly picketing the event and ruining the vibe of the supposed festive safe space. It’s a depressing moment, and it cements the project as a totally current, investigative portrait of Christmas rather than just some mall Santa B-roll. There’s also a hilarious moment when a butthurt Santa gets pissed because his feminist Mrs. Claus demands her own zamboni at their hockey game appearance. Get ‘im, ma’am.
There are way too many Christmas movies about one particular guy that’s not feelin’ the reason for the season enough. Your Grinches, your Scrooges, your poor suicidal Jimmy Stewarts and awful Tim Allens (yeah, I watched Christmas with the Kranks this year). When you’re sick of those redemptive, scripted Yuletide classics, try out Santa Camp for a completely inverse, joyful take. The documentary examines what happens when everybody is allowed to be Santa, when the identities we don’t typically see on Christmas cards want to be included in the festive cheer. Watch it and your heart just might grow three sizes.
