Action Comics #93 (1946)
by Don C. Cameron & Ira Yarbrough
cover by Wayne Boring
Unlike other Christmas stories I’ve reviewed from the Golde Age, Santa won’t show up this time.
Will Superman manage to make the issue even more Christmas-y?
We begin on Christmas Eve in Metropolis, at a party for refugee children.
Among the children are Pablo, from Generic South America, and Mai-Ling from China.
From what I can tell, that’s a passable spelling of a Chinese name. Kind of weird for her family to be celebrating Christmas in 1946, but not entirely impossible.
Also considering the abysmal depiction of Asian people in the Golden Age, this might as well have been written in China given the improvement.
You don’t often see Christmas stories acknowledge Nazi war crimes.
I remind you that Santa is real in DC Comics Golden Age, even if that’s not acknowledged AT ALL in this story.
Superman decides he’s going to help the refugees instead of trying to kiss Lois under the mistletoe.
Superman is going to deliver the presents himself, after borrowing a few planes from the Air Force.
I should point out that the Air Force was going to do this anyway, just more slowly.
So Superman flies around the world to deliver the presents…
…including a stop in the Arctic, where Lois is reminded that other people can speak English too.
Next up are Russia…
…and finally China, where we also acknowledge Japanese war crimes.
I can’t identify any real life place called Kwang-Lo.
The girl wasn’t exaggerating about her village throwing a parade for Santa Claus, who looks distinctly different from his Western incarnation.
I’m pretty sure this is entirely made up by this comic.
The contrast between the celebrations and the people still affected by the war is creating a juxtaposition that you rarely find in Christmas stories.
I was more than a little worried when I discovered that this 1946 was going to China, but despite some stereotyping it’s surprisingly racism-free.
It’s very clear that Don C. Cameron had a very superficial knowledge of the countries we visit in the story, but I think his heart was in the right place.
Superman then drops by Russia… again…
…where Superman resolves the tree shortage crisis.
By giving everyone cancer.
Because of the radiation, the locals are mutated into animal hybrids.
This might be the closest Superman has ever come to calling someone товарищ.
Next up is the Netherlands, where Superman is itching to play Santa “Dutch style”.
Please don’t include Zwarte Piet please don’t…
Oh thank Santa, he just wanted to ride a horse.
Little known fact, in the Netherlands Santa delivers children to parents instead of presents to children.*
*citation needed
We’re running out of pages, so France and the UK get a single panel each.
Then we move to Norway. If you found it jarring to see references to war atrocities, we raise the stakes with a massacre AND child labor!
One of the children is given the opportunity to go to America to reunite with his father, but he opts out.
Superman then prepares a stunt that requires a ton of snow AND kidnapping a herd of reindeers.
All to bring snow to Venezuela. Nice sentiment and all, but did he really need to kidnap the reindeers?
And finally Superman returns home, just leaving behind the children who returned to their families and the Norwegian kid who decided to stay behind.
Or not, because he sneaks out of Superman’s sleight.
This is a good sentiment… until you think about it for a second.
Because instead of making the other orphans believe the kid returned home to his father, now they think he has disappeared while still an orphan himself.
And we finally end with Clark stealing a kiss from Lois.
Tracking Superman’s journey isn’t easy, but by making a few assumptions I believe his itinerary was something like this.
Not saying he couldn’t make the trip, but was a weird choice.
Historical significance: 0 / 
Sometimes reprinted in collections of 40s stories, but that’s it.
Silver Age-ness: 6 / 
It was relatively mild until Superman decided to decorate the tree with radium!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 7 / 
Jokes aside, I actually found this one much better than the Santa stories. It had a more genuine feeling about it, and for all its limitations it DID try to be as inclusive as possible.
Times Superman has replaced Santa: 3
It seems you can’t have a Superman Christmas story without it.