By the time the British photographer Leonard McCombe took this picture of an off-duty Santa enjoying a coffee in a Manhattan cafe in 1962, the ritual of capturing department-store Saint Nicks on downtime was a Christmas tradition in itself. Norman Rockwell had done much to establish the idea in a famous Saturday Evening Post cover of 1940, in which a wide-eyed boy catches a glimpse of a red fur-lined suit under the overcoat of a man snoozing on a subway train after a long present-giving, list-checking shift. After the war, Life magazine, in which this photo first appeared, featured Santas being put through training courses, trying on beards and wigs or waiting for the bus home, as an annual fixture.
McCombe’s photo is a perfect example of the genre. Its ironies depend on poignant detail: the Christmas bell placed on the table at the diner next to the sugar and salt and pepper, the visible elastic of the beard, and the look of lonely resignation not only in this Santa’s…
