🎅🧠Trust the wokest borough in the land to look at Father Christmas—Father Christmas—and decide he’s actually a troubling symbol of Western cultural dominance rather than a man who brings chocolate coins and mild joy.
🎨 When Ideology Eats Christmas
Only in Brighton could a council glance at Santa and think, “Yes, this is the problem we need to fix.” Not potholes. Not housing. Not crime. No—an imaginary, bearded man who exists primarily to delight children and prop up the wrapping paper industry.
Somewhere along the line, city councillors appear to have decided that political signalling matters more than children’s happiness. Because nothing says “progress” like explaining to a five-year-old that Santa has been “reimagined” to avoid reinforcing historical narratives they hadn’t heard of until five minutes ago.
This isn’t inclusion—it’s intrusion. Christmas isn’t a lecture series, and Santa isn’t a colonial administrator. He’s a bloke in a red coat who says “ho ho ho,” not “behold the cultural hegemony of the West.” Yet here we are, watching grown adults deconstruct fairy tales while wondering why everyone else is rolling their eyes into next week.
Brighton’s superpower has always been taking simple pleasures and running them through a political blender until they resemble an undergraduate dissertation. And now Santa’s been fed into the machine. Children wanted magic. They got messaging. 🎄📚
🔥 Challenges 🔥
When did protecting children’s joy become less important than broadcasting ideological virtue? Why is everything required to pass a political purity test before it’s allowed into a primary school? And at what point do adults admit they may have completely lost the plot?
Tell us what you think in the blog comments. Is this harmless symbolism—or proof that some councils can’t see a sleigh without trying to steer it? 💬🔥
👇 Comment. Like. Share.
The best, sharpest takes will be featured in the next issue of the magazine. 📝🎯
Chameleon Magazine 
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