*SPOILER ALERT* Do you guys remember when you first figured out Santa wasn't real?
Did it happen at a Christmas party when a man dressed as Santa Claus pulled off his faux-beard (to unveil a more grizzly and real version!) and you realized it was Mustafa from next door?
We can relate.
This year for Chrismas, Al Bawaba compiled the best Arab Santas we could find on the Internet for you. You're welcome.
And it's just as well we did, before our good Santas of the Holy Lands got stopped in their snowy tracks by some humbugs in Israeli uniforn. We have it on good authority that some Father Christmas's out and about got gassed and put out of Christmas peace and goodwill action. No smoke without fire? -- Indeed these hardened Santas were caught up in the politicking, protest and heat of the 'Middle East' brand of Christmas in the modern day.
Reports in on Christmas Eve, 2015, tell of Israelis tear gassing some Palestinian Santa Clauses!! A foreigner out of the comfort zone of Lapland mistaking Palestine for the homeland, perhaps? Not so foreign, but bona fide Palestinians in festive Father Christmas hoods and costumes were out in protest under the banner 'We want Christmas without occupation' when they were met with Israeil forces attacking their peaceful Bethlehem demonstration with tear gas.
Of course we expect there to be no politics on our non-partisan Father Christmas, who usually stays on the fence. Yet since Tis the Season to be Jolly, the last thing we expected our halls to be decked out with were ... canisters of tear gas, nor these to be fueling our Santas' ho-ho-ho-ho. But stripped of the politics of a Middle Eastern Christmas, we slip back to the basics....And the order of play is tracking our good merry-maker Sheikh Claus around Arab town!
Happy holidays! Welcome to Christmas, Arabia-style!
