Father Christmas has been dragged into the culture wars after a museum declared the festive icon is ‘too white’ and should stop sitting in judgment over children’s behaviour.

In a startling intervention ahead of Christmas, Brighton and Hove Museums argued Father Christmas must be ‘decolonised’ in the name of diversity, claiming his traditional role reinforces damaging ideas about power, authority and Western superiority.

The claims appeared in a blog post published on the museum’s website, which suggested Santa’s familiar naughty-and-nice routine promotes a ‘Western binary’ and casts the bearded gift-giver as a global moral judge.

Read more: Father Christmas is ‘too white’ and has no right to judge if children are naughty or nice, says woke museum