On the last post, I talked about how a mall here in Toronto isn’t really doing the whole Santa Claus thing for a variety of reasons. But that has got me thinking. Maybe that’s a good thing?
The legend of modern day Santa is really quite ridiculous when one stops to think about it. An old jolly man in a red suit who lives somewhere in the north pole employs a bunch of elfs to make toys for children all over the world who have behaved all year. On the night of Christmas eve, he then goes out and sends those toys to children throughout the world in one night using eight flying reindeer, and one of them has a bright red nose for some reason. Some how he knows if your naughty or nice and if you where naughty, he would give you a lump of coal.
Does not one person see the ridiculousness of this whole thing?
Some people say its all about giving a kid something to look forward to at Christmas. Others may say it’s all about the magical wonderness it brings to a child’s eyes. I ask whats so necessary about it?
What benefit is it to tell a child from a poor family the wonderful legend of Santa? Lets say that kid for an example wants a laptop computer to make his or her life easier to study at school, but knows full well that mom and dad is to poor to afford such an investment. What does the kid do? The kid writes a letter to Santa and asks for a computer. Canada Post sends back a pre-written generic response to that child to give that kid some level of hope that Santa has received the letter. But at Christmas morning, heartbroken falls because no laptop PC was found under the Christmas tree. As a parent who’s part of the 99%, busting there ass to make ends meet, what do you then say to the child who’s heart broken?
When the time comes when I have children, chances are, I would most likely be in the 99% bracket who busts his ass to make ends meet for the family. Considering how shit the economy is now with the apparent possibility of getting much worse, making ends meet is something that is getting harder and harder to do. If I can reasonably afford something my kid want’s for Christmas, the last thing I want to do is label the present: “from Santa, to Someudeguy’s future child.” Why should a Christmas legend take credit of bringing happiness to a child? Why shouldn’t a child understand that providing gifts to him or her costs money and money isn’t something that’s easy to earn for a large majority of people in this world? Why encourage a kid to ask for anything to a nice old man from the north pole who will give such a gift for free?
As I said, the whole Santa thing makes no sense to me. Will I let my kids believe in Santa? Well, the shorter they believe in him, the better! I may tolerate it, but I won’t encourage it!
Christmas is all about spending time with friends and family in a festive way. To those who are of the christian faith, it’s also to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It’s also a time to think of those who are less fortunate and to at least spend some time to provide to those. Thats what Christmas means to me. Santa if anything is something that is heavy promoted by corporations to encourage you to spend money. That’s not exactly the right kind of message to send out to people about Christmas.
Lastly, perhaps it’s best I disclose that I did believe in Santa as a kid. But it was only tell I was like 8 or something. Why? Well, I pretty much came up with all the thoughts I have written above on my own!
