Ho Ho Ho, Thar!
Why is there a picture of a demented Santa Claus on my log? Well, it’s because this year I decided to do Christmas cards. My mother’s been pressuring me for ages to make my own Christmas cards, but I either never had the interest or were too lazy to make some myself. This year I decided to do it, but I didn’t want to do it like she wanted per se. If I was going to do a Christmas card I was going to do something I considered fun. Like everything there’s a bit of story to it.
Like I said my mother was prodding me into doing a Christmas card, but I didn’t want to this year again. I finally decided to do one around the beginning of December just so she’d shut up, but little did she know I’d do something she wouldn’t much care for… as usual. I wanted to do something funny rather than the usual Christmas illustration. Many things came to mind, but I settled on doing a redneck Santa.
Many people find rednecks to be funny due to their sheer stupidity or ingenuity at making use of the things handed to them. Their sense of style is a topic of much discussion and laughter. I live in the South surrounded by them. I don’t consider myself one, but I sure as hell talk like one sometimes. I have first hand knowledge of what they’re like, and I wanted to portray that on Santa without his losing his enduring qualities in the process.
Over the course of a couple of days I started doodling as I usually do, but I couldn’t come up with anything that looked right. Many people when they think of Santa Claus the vision in their heads is from the old Coca-Cola ads. Hell, even some people believe that Coca-Cola invented him when they didn’t. So, I decided to do some research on those. It suddenly came to my mind that I could have him popping the top on a beer can instead of displaying a Coca-Cola bottle. Suddenly I thought of the fat guy leaning back popping the top on a beer can. After I doodled that I had it, but I needed to redneck him up.
Stereotypically rednecks wear trucker’s hats and specifically John Deere hats, so I doodled methods I could make his hat different than the usual sock hat. That’s why I came up with what I have now with a furry bill and furry ball at the top. The logo is a play on “reindeer” made to look like the John Deere logo. Since he’s lounging around, and to make him as undignified as possible I made him topless showing off his sexy gut. Instead of slacks he’s wearing sweatpants which are untied and a Dixie Confederate battle flag belt buckle for the last finishing touches, letting anyone know without a shadow of doubt that he went redneck. Anyone who’s a fan of The Simpsons might recognize the beer can’s faint logo which is an appropriation of Homer’s favorite beer, Duff. In Santa’s case it’s Bubba Beer.
It’s painted digitally using my Wacom Intuos 3 tablet in Adobe Photoshop and took about a week off and on to complete. I didn’t get to ship the cards out like I wanted to because my mother fell ill which I described earlier. I shipped the ones overseas, and then got notice that my mother was being put in the hospital. I didn’t have the desire to do it after that, but after things were over I decided I’d email it instead. My domestic friends got the card through email instead.