The Death of Santa Claus

“The Death of Santa Claus” is a poignant narrative poem about a child’s realization that Santa Claus is a construct rather than a reality. The title regarding Santa’s demise immediately creates a juxtaposition (a side-by-side comparison to reveal contrast) pairing the iconic image of Santa Claus as a jolly old elf with the darker theme of death. The poem is divided into two parts. The first seven stanzas take place at the “North Pole” (Line 3) in a third-person point of view, close to Santa Claus. The last three stanzas shift to first-person narration as the speaker remembers the moment that Santa figuratively died in his mind when he was a child in “Houston, Texas” (Line 23). Charles Harper Webb grew up in Houston, so his choice of using this location in “The Death of Santa Claus” can be interpreted as autobiographical, especially given the use of the first-person pronoun “I” in Line 23—“I’m 8”—which indicates that the child speaker is a young Webb.

The poem begins with a description that puts the mythic Santa into a realistic situation. Rather than his usually immortal self, Santa is only a human who has had “chest pains for weeks” (Line 1).