Emma Dejong
The Grinch
Disclaimer: If this Christmas season you plan to set out milk and cookies, snowplow your roof or install an elevator in your chimney, you might want to stop reading here.
Brace yourself. There is no immortal, overweight grandfather figure with a Mary Poppins-style sack of toys whose sled runs on the fuel of Christmas cheer.
There, now it’s out in the open.
My question is why. Why does the entire world insist on protecting this story? Think about it. Santa Claus is literally a worldwide lie.
Let’s make a safe underestimation that there are 10 million children who believe in Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, Saint Nicholas or whatever name you prefer. That’s 10 million letters, 10 million Santa photo shoots and probably 20 million cookies laid next to ice-cold glasses of milk.
This also means 10 million children will have to find out the truth.
Each will have to wonder why their parents wanted them to believe a man sees them when they’re sleeping and knows when they’re awake. Each will have to wonder why Hollywood is so insistent that behind a white beard is the “magic of Christmas.”
I just don’t get it.
I hope I don’t sound like I am against the spirit of giving. I have no problem with presents, shopping or excitement; I think laughter and smiling are just the best. I just have a problem that we are depending on a myth for all these things. When giving starts to become an expectation, the already greedy kids of this generation are just made greedier.
Yes, the story of Santa Claus is pretty innocent. But on a deeper, more serious level, what are we teaching children to value? Christmas is a Christian holiday to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. When going to church on Christmas morning becomes less desirable than opening the latest toy, we have a problem.
I wonder why we are so insistent to keep the Santa thing alive. Some might say it is to protect imagination and mystery. I would argue that a child’s imagination is much more expansive than we give it credit for. Give a kid a straw and they can create a whole village.
In the case of Santa Claus, however, instead of teaching children to have fun in the world of make-believe, we are teaching them the lie that make-believe is real.
If I am ever blessed to have a family, I suppose my kids will be the ones who burst bubbles on the monkey bars.
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