Its Christmas and I'm going to just throw in some Christmasy imagery and ramble like a wild man. Nothing much new then, apart from the festive theme.

First up we have something wonderfully tasteless:

Source

Presumably, based on the famous urban legend (with a dash of Dali's Christ of Saint John of the Cross), the main image (minus the text, presumably added in to further hook this into the urban legend) is by Robert Cendella and was originally displayed, in December 1997, stuck to the window of the Arts Students League in New York, as a protest about the commercialisation of Christmas. This theme inspired a similar protest when Art Conrad nailed a Santa to a cross and, according to the reports, sent out a Christmas card with the image on saying "Santa died for your MasterCard"

Personally I'm very intrigued by another card (also mentioned in the Snopes piece) that does seem to actually exist: "Christmas cards featuring a ghoulish Santa in a graveyard accompanied by the Virgin Mary on broomstick." If anyone has any information on that let me know.

While searching for the Crucified Santa I stumbled across these lovely Japanese Christmas cards from Japan Probe' 2006 and 2007 round-up, and this is as tasteful as I'm planning on getting but if you look carefully (especially at the larger version) it is a traditional scene but with dozens of tiny Santas running around - all very odd and a weirdly recurring theme:

Coincidentally, Neatorama had a link to a series of Japanese Santas and I'd be mained if I didn't mention the Hello Kitty "Santa":

Oddly, they also mention the Samurai Santa comic which actually isn't from Japan. Best I can tell, this 1986 comic is the first published work of Jim Lee (who provided the inking) and I have to say I'd love to read this even if there is some debate on whether it is the worst comic ever. There is even a little video clip of him at a comic convention answering the question "Would you ever consider going back to work on Samurai Santa?" The answer is no and he looks distinctly sheepish about it. I'm not sure why!!

I might be a sucker for this kind of cross-culture/cross-genre mash-up but the same company, Solson Publications, produced a number of (what I'll call) Samuraisploitation and to be honest I'd probably read their Texas Chainsaw Samurai too:

But we are wandering from the theme, so let us return to Samurai Santa, which seems a surprisingly popular topic. There is Manga Claus: The Blade of Kringle (which seems to be not that bad):

Also there is this excellent piece recently uploaded at DeviantArt:

However, there is a real Samurai Santa:

In 1875 in Harajo School in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Christmas was celebrated. It was strange and amusing because Santa Claus appeared dressed like a Samurai.

Source

Here is a longer piece on this (NB: The image doesn't seem to be the actual armour, as far as I can tell):

Japan's first Santa Claus was depicted looking like a samurai warlord in order to promote a locally acceptable form of Christianity, a former professor at a Lutheran college has told Ecumenical News International.

"Taneaki Hara [1853-1942], who established Hara Girls School ... was baptized at Tokyo First Presbyterian Church [in 1874]. At a Christmas party he planned, he wanted to have a Santa Claus appear there," Shuichi Kaku, a former professor at Japan Lutheran College in Tokyo and author of several Japanese books about Christianity, writes in his 2001 book, Mysteries of Santa Claus.

"He wanted to make Santa looking as Japanese as possible. He made a Santa Claus that looked like a samurai warlord bearing a pair of long and short swords and wearing old style ceremonial dress known as a kamishimo," Kaku explains in the book.

"His free adaptation is interesting. It was not restrained by [Western] missionaries [who brought Christianity to Japan at that time]," Kaku, a former pastor of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, and who is now a director at the Christian Counseling Centre in Tokyo, told ENI.

The samurai Santa costume was worn by Tadaatsu Toda, an evangelist of the then Japan Christ Church.

Source

Before we leave Santas of the Rising Sun it'd be rude not to mention Ninja Claus:

It would be remiss of me not to mention the genre of the moment as there is, of course, a Steampunk Santa with his reindirigible, another new addition at DeviantArt too:

So, to close, imagine this sinister Santa (one of many strange Xmas cards) giving you a visit:

and whispering into your ear, his version of the line from the Samurai Santa comic:

Santa wants you to have a Merry Christmas...
...or else!!

We'll end on a musical note, with a couple of songs for everyone depending on your mood. First up an old classic when the Bing met the Bowie:

Or you can "enjoy" Tiny Tim's Santa Claus Has Got The AIDS This Year:

What? You were expecting something tasteful? All I can offer is an encore: King Diamond's No Presents for Christmas, forget Merry Axemas volumes 1 and 2 (yep they exist and they can't match it for RAWK, although Ted Nugent gets close) this is the metalest Christmas song, so crank up the volume and get into the spirit of things. Or else!!