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From: kay@vide.coventry.ac.uk (Kay Dekker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Crucified Santa
Date: 16 Dec 1994 10:31:39 GMT

Kay Dekker <kay@vide.coventry.ac.uk> wrote: >The current issue of that remarkable publication "Fortean Times"
>contains a photograph of a farily bizarre street scene - something
>to do with a banned float at a carnival, or whatever - featuring
>a crucified Santa.

FORTEAN TIMES, Issue 78: December 94 - January 95 ISSN 0308 5899. Publisher: John Brown Publishing, The Boathouse, Crabtree Lane, London SW6 6LU, UK. Editors: Bob Rickard and Paul Sieveking. UKpounds 2, US$4.95, Australian$5.50.

Page 5: Under heading "Strange Days - a bi-monthly bulletin of the curious & chaotic", a large B&W photo of a crucified Santa surrounded by placard-carrying demonstrators; in the front, a police car. Text in black on mauve as a speech-bubble coming from Santa:

--quote

        SANTA CRUCIFIED
        In the 1960s, Tokyo's largest department store decided
        to have its first-ever Christmas display.  On the first day of
        Advent, the management called in the VIPs of the city's
        British colony for an unveiling.  The nonplussed bigwigs
        were confronted by the biggest Santa they had ever seen...
        nailed to a cross.
        Last year, this delightful tale - possibly apocryphal -
        inspired the McGillicuddy Clan's float in the Christmas
        parade at Hamilton, New Zealand.  The cross was adorned
        with foliage in the manner of the Swedish midsummer
        Stang festival.  The float was excluded as "bad taste and
        contrary to the spirit of Christmas."

                Christchurch Press, 20 Nov 1993

--quote

Some of the placards carried by the demonstrators read: SMASH THE FASCIST CLAUS REGIME; YO BLOODY HO; NO ONE EXPE[CTS?] THE SAN[TA?] INQUISITI[ON?]; SANTA RUINED MY [M?]ARRIAG[E?]; WILL THE REAL SANTA PLEASE [S?]TAND UP; and SANT[A?] [D?]IE[D?] FOR [Y?]O[U?].

In the same issue, on p 11, there is a rather nice shot of a pair of buttocks and a hand guiding a gerbil towards them.

Kay