Jesus or Santa? Who Is The Bigger Christmas Icon?

It’s that time of year kiddies! Christmas! Christmas means different things to different people. To Christians it’s a celebration of the birth of Christ. To shoppers it’s the season to give gifts, revive the economy, run up some new debt, and get a truly poor return on investment for every dollar you spend on someone else. Ah, the joy of giving!

It is also a confusing time of year as two massive icons compete for the spotlight. Is Christmas about Jesus and his message, or Santa and his commercial messages? What the heck does a fat Swedish Saint (with at best a questionable fondness for children) have to do with celebrating the coming of the Messiah? Well nothing actually.  Despite that, somehow these two have existed together for years (probably because Jesus is so darn forgiving).

For a great deal of people, Christmas is both a religious holiday and retail shopping extravaganza. Unfortunately, you don’t actually have to believe in Jesus or Santa to participate. Bumble would like to point out, it is a little obvious to hop on the “Jesus bandwagon” just because you get stuff on his birthday. For the record, you are probably not fooling him! But sadly, all you need is cash or available credit to have a yourself a merry little Christmas thanks to Santa.

Don’t get Bumble wrong, Jesus is big this time of year. Church attendance soars on his Birthday. Little children do pageants about his birth in a faraway manger. Christians try very hard to keep him in the forefront of the holiday. Somehow in mainstream America he still ends up second fiddle.

Face it,  Santa is  bigger at this time of year. His impact is felt from main street to wall street. Little kids start getting reminded to be good around Black Friday. Otherwise Santa will give them just a lump of coal if they keep being naughty. Retailers plan their entire yearly profits around the Santa season.

So if the holiday was created to celebrate Jesus the question remains, why is the fat Swede bigger this time of year? His face is everywhere and it’s not even his birthday! The answer is simple…

Superior Marketing

Let’s take an unbiased look at the difference in how both are presented…

This just goes to show the power of marketing. Clearly you don’t have to be the first to market with something to dominate the market share. Heck, Jesus invented Christmas, and Santa is still just better at self promotion and keeping himself in the spotlight.

Bumble can't make this stuff up!

He also has one crack marketing team. The modern Santa image was perfected by a gentleman named Haddon Sunblum for Coca Cola. Haddon also developed two other famous iconic images.

Aunt Jemima and the Quaker Oats man!

Talk about having a team of pros at your disposal.

Santa has also been constantly pitching products. Billy Mays pales in comparison. Bumble will close with just a few of the vintage ads featuring Santa over the years. Imagine the endorsement dollars it takes to employ all those elves.

Some of these are questionable at best.

MILF and Cookies for Santa?

Enjoy that beer little kiddies!

Somke up Johnny!

Santa is a media whore!