As Catholicism is the dominant religion in South America, Christmas is widely celebrated there. Is Santa Claus even a part of the culture in South American countries? And if so, is he depicted in wintery scenes? Since his origin is the North Pole, it would make sense if he was, but he could just as easily be shown in summer scenes due to the timing of the holiday.
Anyone know the straight dope?
Australian Christmas cards frequently show variations on that theme.
Google Australian Santa and you get a load of sunbathing and surfing Santas:)
Santa is widely known, but not traditional. Some Latin American countries have a large industry making figurines (both Christmas decorations and other similar items); the people who work there would know Santa from work even if he wasn’t in so many movies. And there is quite a large area where snow is “something that happens in movies”: when my team was in Costa Rica, the clients asked us questions about the size of sheep, cows’ lack of humps (the cows in CR are Brahmas) and what is snow like. Christmas postcards, whether with “the fat foreigner”, Nativity scenes, or local figures, exists both with snow and with localized landscapes - the Holy Family and co may get “localized” too, you see Nativities where the figures are in the typical local dress and have the typical local faces (but we do that in Europe too; the models for every Holy Family painted by El Greco was his own family, including some with his MiL as St Anna).