Does Santa Exist For Asian Americans?

By Tim | Sunday, December 20, 2009 | View Comments

I came to the U.S. when I was only 2 years old. As an Asian American immigrant child in a family where money was stretched thin, there wasn’t even the hint that Santa could be real in our household. We knew Santa wasn’t coming on Christmas eve, and the only presents we’d be getting under the artificial Christmas tree were the sweaters, pants and new coats from our parents. We did watch all the same Christmas specials that other kids watched, so we understood that they believed in Santa, and we knew who Santa was, and we knew all the American traditions around Christmas; we just never believed in Santa ourselves. There were some early Christmas eve nights that I had hope that Santa would come; but the morning after would always prove to be a disappointment. Unlike Lisa Ling from The View, who learned early on that Santa liked Caucasian children better than Chinese children, we didn’t even believe in Santa.

I didn’t mean to come off sounding so cynical in just the first paragraph of a story about Christmas. I really do have the Christmas spirit. I’m the one person in my family that arranges an annual family get together for Christmas, I make sure everyone who is coming for Christmas has a present, and now that I have my own 4 year old daughter I do make sure she believes in Santa. It hasn’t been easy, as she’s already asked how Santa fits in our small little fireplace and how come one mall Santa isn’t the same person as another mall Santa. I’m just glad she hasn’t asked why Santa isn’t Chinese. (And for those of you that think otherwise, you can always get the “Santa is Asian” t-shirt [no I'm not affiliated with this t-shirt], watch the Asian Santa in Family Guy, or become a fan of the Asian Santa is Better Facebook group).

As we run around doing our holiday errands, I realize she thinks of Christmas as a time to get presents and not as the holiday I’ve come to see it as; which is the holiday to spend with your family. But I know that’s part of the process of growing up, and I’ve still got to get through plenty of Christmas get togethers in her teenage years. But at least in her youth, she still has some innocence, and does have the magic of believing in Santa.

What next?

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khcheung

Making kids believe in Santa is the dumbest thing ever!! I've always thought the white kids in my class were dumb! How in the fricken world could you believe in that? It's like believing in Mickey Mouse or Daffy Duck!! Ridicule!! It's like believing in Jesus!!

My mom told me that in white families, the kids only got things at Christmas time. In our family, we got whatever we wanted whenever we wanted, on the condition of mom's approval. Without mom's approval, we would never ever get it, ever!! With mom's approval, we could get it right away!! Why wait if it's a good thing?
Big Red One

Dude...there are many fundamentalists out there regardless of race. So your part about 'it's like believing in Jesus' - I find humorous.
minjungkim

My father told me when I was a child that Santa wasn't goign to visit us because we'd moved from Korea and there was no Chimney forwarding service. Good one, Dad!
jenc

i believed in santa when i was a kid..although we didn't have a chimney either...
moye

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I fully believed in Santa Claus as a child. I still imagined him as some fat white guy, but still! He gave presents to everyone all over the world. My biggest problem was that our house didn't have a chimney.
ErnieAtLYD

An anecdote: So, I was in a co-ed community service fraternity at UC Davis, which is 95% Asian. One of the projects we did was "Santa for Kids," where we would travel to neighboring towns (mostly Latino) and give presents that we raised money for to the neighboring schoolkids - and of course - one of the guys would dress up as Santa Claus.

We had definitely heard "Porque es Santa un chinito?" more than once. It was kinda awesome.
Dan W

Oh, don't feel so bad feeling left out. There's quite a lot of people out there, non-Asians especially, who don't even celebrate this holiday all together, mostly for religious reasons. However, we all agree that this is family time and many ideas like giving are greatly valued.

There's also this light-hearted link you all might find interesting. It's funny cause I read this right before I got on 8 Asians.

http://www.psfk.com/2009/12/chinese-netizens-pr...
byebyedoggy

Our family didn't distinguish existence from nonexistence. We lived in the energy of the moment. When someone presented Santa to us as something intriguing and magical - we were enthralled. When Santa came to visit our nursery school as a fat guy in a lousy suit we were excited by the anticipation but then noticed all the ordinary details of his humanity and prefered our parents above anyone else.
jeffat8asians

Number 2 Son used to believe in Santa Clause, but then he started wondering why Santa gave him a Borders gift card. "He wants you to read more and develop your reading skills," I would say. He then noticed that Santa's handwriting looked a lot like mine, and then he figured who Santa really was.
Tien V Nguyen

Santa also hates poor children too. While the rich kid who asks for a PS3/Wii or a brand new bike will always have Santa come through to them, the poor kid will end up with a $5 walmart sweater, and think Santa must have them.

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