This post has been brought to you by the letter S. With the Christmas season fast approaching, it's time to ask one of the most important questions of our lifetime: Where are all of the Steampunk Santas? Santa was even notably absent from the infamous Justin Bieber Steampunk music video, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Honestly, for a song about Santa Claus, you'd think that, you know, Santa Claus would be in it. Please enable JavaScript to watch this video. If you haven't watched this video yet, go for it. It's very pretty, except for Mr. Bieber's pants, which seem to be sagging in a fashion that would suggest incontinence. Still, plenty of good casual Steampunk outfits abound. Now that I've gotten the required Bieber joke out of my system, it's time to move on to Santas! There's a lot of Steampunk Santa art on the internet, but relatively few concrete, real-world examples. In fact, until I specifically went looking for them, I'd never seen any. This is a problem that needs to be rectified! Toward that end, I've collected the best Steampunk Santas on the internet into this post for your perusal pleasure!

Bring on the Santas! The first Santa on our list (whose name I can't find) premiered at the "Clockwork Dream" event in Chicago, which was a Steampunk Christmas party. According to Steampunk Chicago, his beard is made of typewriter keys! I'm not certain, but I think his mechanical arm might be specifically made to pick up presents. This next Santa sculpture is pretty amazing, and is actually made of ceramic, if you can believe that. Presumably it's a brooch for wearing during the holidays, but I'm not entirely sure as the person who made it, Desert Rubble, doesn't appear to be offering it for sale anymore. Shame, isn't it? I don't have much call for Steampunk Santa jewelry, but I would absolutely buy such a thing for my wife, who loves holiday-themed accessories. This photo, captured by Hieroglyph Photography, reveals a rather dashing (through the snow) Santa! While I'm on the fence about the leather pants, I suspect that if the real Santa Claus looked this fancy, Mrs. Claus would be getting pretty jealous that he was in strange women's houses all night. I'm not sure what this next Santa is doing, but I like his outfit! He's either walking somewhere very briskly and purposefully, or he's dancing. Or something else that we mere mortals couldn't understand. I'm particularly fond of his cool pants, though I'm digging his real beard, too. Our last Santa of the season is David Springer, aka Doc Zepp, and he takes being a Steampunk Santa pretty seriously! This particular photo of him was taken by Pongo Photos, and I think it pretty sufficiently captures the essence of his greatness. If there were a real Santa Claus, I suspect that he would look a lot like Mr. Springer, at least if Thomas Nast has anything to say about it. As you go about your holiday activities this year, remember that Christmas was a huge part of Victorian life, as was religion in general. The modern conception of Santa Claus can be traced back to that time—the 1860s in particular—so Santa would be right at home in a Steampunk world! He even made an appearance at this year's TeslaCon. So, have a merry Steampunk Christmas, regardless of your religion!