14 DAY TRIAL // The Smithsonian has launched a new spooky voting competition, meant to award not the kindest, best-looking or most eco-friendly Santa Claus, but the scariest character ever designed and printed on a piece of paper.
Some of the photos included in the ample gallery are funny, others give us chills down our spine and make us hope Santa won't hurry down the chimney this year.
One of the most intriguing images is definitely the one entitled “Santa the Arsonist” is anticipating the devastating effects posed by climate change, seven decades before this subject made it under the spotlight all across the Globe.
The masterpiece in signed by artist Ralph Fabri, from Hungary and was created in 1939. Fabri sent the scary postcard to one of his friends, Dale Pontius in 1939, as a Christmas gift.
The ingenious work of art, suggestively painted on a piece of paper in black and white, clearly indicates that the future is far from being colorful. It helps us picture good old Santa, this time grumpy and obviously unhappy, sitting on an asteroid while our planet is literally burning.
Regardless of the interpretations taken into consideration by art critics 70 years ago, the ingenious, but macabre postcard sends a clear message. Climate change effects are noticeable worldwide and Santa using his magic sled could be the only one escaping the deadly consequences.
As we speak, we might be one step closer to the images presented by the Hungarian artists, since 2011 has been a year of extreme weather and weird, powerful natural phenomena.
This fact is indicated by NRDC’s Extreme Weather Map. Extreme meteorological events have managed to exceed 2,941 monthly weather records in all the American states, according to the Switchboard.
And not only the US is exposed to this kind of threats. The deadly floods and landslides recorded recently in the Philippines are a strong proof that climate change effects correlated with man-made factors, like widespread deforestation, are powerful enough to wipe houses and even small villages off the face of the earth.
For those who cannot be intimidated by climate change or the odd-looking Arsonists, the Smithsonian has other creepy options, like Santa the Burglar, Mischievous Santa or Santa the Punisher seem to be viable alternatives to ruin our Christmas spirit and makes us lock the doors before we go to bed.