Do you find this offensive? We didn’t think so.So here are some very interesting resources that go a long way to explaining why ‘Santa’s Butt’ — Santa sitting on a barrel enjoying a beer — is a perfectly sensible and appropriate (not to mention ‘dignified’ or ‘proper’) concept:

http://www.fosters.com
(St Nick — now better known as Santa Claus — is the patron saint of brewers, and is just one of a passle of saints who have much to do with beer. Check out the ‘Christianity’ entries and the ‘Medieval’ entries and note how closely beer and Christianity are linked.)

http://www.ourcatholicfaith.org/
(Santa the patron saint also of coopers — butt-makers, if you will . . .)

http://www.faces.k12.wi.us/
(This site has pictures of healthy happy children at the top, and contains this information and advice: “Thus Nicholas became the patron saint of brewers and of children; and is more commonly know to us today as Saint Nick or Santa Claus! We suggest leaving him Ale next Christmas instead of milk.”)

http://en.wikipedia.org/
(Explaining that the roots of Santa Claus are really pagan — though they’ve become mixed with all the St Nicklas lore — and making clear that Santa has long had associations with ale: “A book dating from the time of the Commonwealth, The Vindication of CHRISTMAS or, His Twelve Yeares’ Observations upon the Times, involved Father Christmas advocating a merry, alcoholic Christmas and casting aspersions on the charitable motives of the ruling Puritans.”)

http://www.jbsumner.com/
(This history of Porter explains the terms ‘entire butt.’)

Inexplicably, this site actually talks about the children’s book referenced on the back of the Santa’s Butt label — which is especially weird given that we just made that line up as a joke:
http://www.bottledbeer.co.uk/

We’re trying to lay hands on a copy of Raymond Brigg’s two Father Christmas books to see if we unwittingly channeled his spirit (or plagiarized his work) while writing the explanatory text on the back of the Santa’s Butt label. So far, all we know is this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/

You can only get his books in the U.K., but we’re going to work on that, since Peter Scholey, brewer of Santa’s Butt, has informed us that Briggs is a genius, so we’ll want to be reading those Father Christmas books in all events. You can order on Amazon/U.K.:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/

Here is a lucid examination of our American Santa Claus’s commercial, and thoroughly secular, roots (courtesy of a blogger on our site):
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp

Here are a few interesting internet commentaries on this controversy that we may as well recommend. At the very least, they give you some indication that our American Santa Claus has never been particularly ‘pure’ since he first came on the scene, all rolly-polly, white-bearded, and bundled up in red fleece. The first-listed blog piece is nothing short of brilliant:

http://www.brookston.org/

http://www.beeractivist.com/

http://www.silflayhraka.com/

And here is Frank Zappa’s defense of Santa’s Butt. The late, much-lamented genius’s comments on censorship are eerily apt more than twenty years later:
http://www.youtube.com/

And note the attached photo of some cases stacked in a Maine grocery store, sent to us by a fan of ours in Maine. There’s also Gritty McDuff’s website:
http://www.grittys.com/ Why are they picking on our beer-drinking Santa? Is it because we’re from out-of-state? Is it because ours has a bigger butt?

Oh, and why not look at just one more attachment, the back of our Christmas four-pack, which explains that we aren’t responsible for our crimes against Santa and Christmas? As you can see, it was our horrible abusive upbringing. Take pity. Of course, another way to look at it is just that this is all just a bit of a laugh, innit?

And speaking of which, here’s a little something that should make you chuckle: http://www.glumbert.com/media/whysanta

Want some Poo with that Butt? Get it while it’s still in stock (and be sure to click on the photo to get a rear view — priceless):
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/