The Fux Channel's expert on Santa Claus, Megyn Kelly, recently argued that, historically speaking, Santa Claus is decidedly white (so let's have no more black Santas taking the Christmas wishes of black kids, shall we!) While we'd think that they'd have more important things to talk about on Fux, it does fit in with their War on Christmas canard. So yes, Megyn, the modern version of Santa is white as snow, but the historical character he's modeled after was St. Nicholas of Myra from what is now a province of Turkey, so he was less Nordic and more Middle Eastern in appearance (see 13th century depiction above).
Kelly's whole racially-skewed comments drew the satire of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, to wit:
Megyn Kelly: For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white.
Stephen Colbert: Yes. Thank you. For all those kids watching Fox News at 9:40 at night, Santa is white. Besides, a black Santa is a terrible idea. If a home owner in Florida sees a black man coming down their chimney, he is going to get shot. 'Officer, I was only defending my milk and cookies!'" ---The Colbert Report
Jon Stewart: Santa is just white? Who are you actually talking to? Children who are sophisticated enough to be watching a news channel at 10 o'clock at night, yet innocent enough to still believe Santa Claus is real, yet racist enough to be freaked out if he isn’t white. ---The Daily ShowCan't top that.
UPDATE: Last night, Kelly claimed it was all an attempt at humor! Hee-haw! Riiiiight!
