A Christmas Miracle – Hong Kong’s Santa Banana Crowned World’s Best Father Christmas!

  You don’t have to come from a snowy wonderland to be blessed with sleigh loads of Christmas spirit. This was recently proved by Santa Banana, a bubbly Hong Kong magician who made our subtropical nation proud by being crowned the world’s best Father Christmas at the annual Santa Winter Games 2013.  

Source: Santa Winter Games Facebook Page

Hosted in the town of Gällivare, Sweden, the Games saw Santas compete in various different disciplines, including Porridge-Eating, Reindeer (mechanical bull) Riding, the Christmas Race, Present Stacking and finally, the all-important Dance Off! Santa Banana - real name Plato Chan - proved to be the top of the tree, leaving 13 other Father Christmas wannabes to bite the snow dust. No doubt thanks to his sideline magic tricks and balloon twisting, the 27-year-old also left Sweden with the title of ‘People’s Favourite’ Santa. Watch Santa Banana in action, beating other local Santas to be Hong Kong's representative this year  

Source: JewishNewsOne YouTube Channel

Despite a distinct lack of snow and reindeer, Hong Kong historically does very well in the Santa Winter Games, pulling in two gold medals, one silver and two bronze over our past five years of entry. Mr Banana, who trained for months under the guidance of 2011 second runner-up Santa Mario Ko Tim-yue, believes being “Santa is about happiness”, and says he hopes to bring joy to Hong Kongers with his win. According to a recent Q&A with the Santa Winter Games, all he wants for Christmas this year is to see a Smurf. Though call!

So a big thanks to the wonderful Santa Banana for bringing Christmas cheer to our lovely island. With no chimneys to sneak down in Hong Kong, we do however wonder how he plans to deliver all our gifts!

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