Kids growing up
(Visited 6349 times) Misc
Dec 182005
“Hey, look. There’s Santa over in front of the store. You wanna get your picture taken with him?”
“Nah.”
“Why not?”
“That’s not Santa, that’s just some guy in a suit.”
“Uh… yeah, but you do you want your picture anyway?”
“Nah.”
“Don’t you think it’s one of Santa’s helpers?”
“Nope. Elves are much shorter than that. Besides, Santa’s busy at the North Pole this week getting ready.”
Whew.
At least they eagerly volunteered to get wrapped up in the tree netting when we bought the Christmas tree.
10 Responses to “Kids growing up”
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Wait, the guys at stores are not really Santa? Damn, I thought something was up. They never let me sit in their laps anymore. 🙁
Off to cry myself to sleep.
Heh glad some folks are having fun this time of year.
Hehe.
This reminds of me my experiences this past weekend. We went to the mall because I always love going at the holidays. The wash of humanity is something I enjoy being immersed in both in the real world as well as the virtual.
So we’re in our major mall over, not shopping because we’ve been done for weeks (online ftw!). This place probably does 30-35% of its business between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s a fairly well run place, which is why my estimate is a bit conservative, but regardless, the commerce of this time of year is linked in part to Santa.
Growing up, he was always prominently in the middle of the mall, regardless of the design. Easily accessible, always there, can’t be missed. Yet in this mall now, they got the guy tucked off under an escalator in front of a b-rate anchor! I decided to check around, and at least in the Northeast (well, the 10 malls I could get info on), our mall is not unique in its placement of Santa.
I have long since accepted the decline of the relevance of religion during the holiday. In a multi-cultural country, some would even argue it makes sense. But I have begun to wonder what is going to happen to Santa.
Considering how Christmas became a commercial holiday, I’ve always wondered how Santa was tied to Christianity for so long. He’s more of a secular symbol linked through convenience to a big religious holiday than an important figure within it. Will he continue to be marginalized and removed entirely? Will he be decoupled from Christianity so that children of other religions can enjoy his toys or fear being naughty?
Sorry I got so deep. It happens at the holidays more often than not 🙂
I had just the opposite experience Darniaq. My brother and I were walking by the very central Santa display when I hear a little girl saying something about “and there’s Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus” and I was thinking to myself… “Uh?” and I look back and just next to the sleigh that Santa was getting his pictures in… was Baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph looking over him. Crazy. Very surreal because it was all mixed in together in a way that made no sense at all while of course, making all the sense in the world 😉 We obviously concluded that Baby Jesus approves of Santa.
“Considering how Christmas became a commercial holiday, I’ve always wondered how Santa was tied to Christianity for so long.”
I think Santa Claus is a variation on the name Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children. Saint Nicholas -> Saintni Cholas > Santa Claus. Interesting how Santa comes from Christianity, yet is denounced by so many Christians. But then again, I never heard of a Catholic denouncing Santa, so…there we are then.
Everything about Santa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_claus
The modern image of Santa Claus is mostly due to Coca-Cola (it is said in there that some people think that Coca-Cola invented the whole concept, wich is false of course).
So you can understand why Christianity might want to stay away from Satan… oups, Santa
look on the bright side. at least there were still santas out in front of the stores.
I watched Miracle on 34th Street again last night (I’ll probably watch it a few more times before the “season” is over with). I think I was probably born too pragmatic to really believe in Santa (& I wasn’t raised in a religious household). But I think I still feel a sense of wonderment from just about anything that brings so much joy to children. Do we ever really believe in the implausible? Or do we just live the fantasy for as long as we can make it last?
I think we spend the first fifteen years of our lives trying to get out of our own fantasy worlds, then spend the remaining seventy-or-so years trying to get back into it again.