Santa: Symbol Of Christmas Cheer Or Unwitting Heartbreaker?
Santa’s big day is nearly here. Millions of children are eagerly awaiting his visit, chattering about what Santa might be bringing them, and plotting to stay up late to catch a glimpse of the mythical elf. As the Inquisitr reports, there are apps and websites dedicated to tracking Santa’s progress around the globe, and live video feeds watching Santa feed his reindeer. Christmas lists have been made, and visits to the big guy complete. Now these excited children begin the countdown to the magic of Christmas morning. There is also a huge subset of the population that is hoping against hope that even though their parents don’t have any money, that Santa Claus will bring them their hearts’ desires as well.
Most people have a vague knowledge of the origins of Santa Claus. He was an ancient saint from the area of what is modern day Turkey. His generosity and kindness made him the stuff of legends and he became known as the protector of children. The anniversary of his death was celebrated and thought to be a lucky day to make large purchases. The saint’s popularity spread all across Europe, and he was especially revered in Holland, where his nickname “Santa Claus” derived from “Sinter Klaas,” a shortened Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. Santa’s fame spread to the U.S. and has been capitalized on by retailers for eons.
Santa means a number of different things to different people. Some parents use Santa to lovingly heap gifts on their children, and delight in their excitement and joy. Others don’t care to share the credit for their hard work and careful gift selection with Santa, and so ensure that the gifts which come from Santa Claus are more modest, and mom and dad get credit for the big ones. Still, others can’t afford to buy gifts at all, and try desperately to find something, anything, they can wrap from Santa and try to keep the magic alive for their little ones.
A kerfuffle arose this past week when an anonymous poster on a Facebook confession page asked parents to be mindful of the plight of others by making gifts from Santa be a bit more modest. The post has been shared more than half a million times.
The responses have varied widely. Many comments are very supportive of the idea, and posters admit that they had never before considered that aspect of Christmas and Santa. Other comments have been almost violently opposed and called the original poster “nosy” and “intrusive.” The original poster followed up with a response to many of the hateful comments directed at the original reminder.
What do you think? Should Santa get all the credit? Or would it be a great gesture and embodiment of the true meaning of Christmas and spirit of the real Santa Claus to try to make all kids feel special by swapping the names around on some of the gift tags?
