The Written Word
for December 20, 2000

It’s bad enough that Christ is being eased and in some cases brutally heaved out of Christmas, there is now a movement to get rid of Santa Claus. The theory is, of course, that because there is no Santa Claus we are lying to our children and raising false hopes of make-believe.

This surely is nonsense. Our history – especially our oral history is largely based upon myths.

We all pretend that our families were once really something in some mother country long ago. There are thriving businesses devoted to providing coats of arms for whatever family you claim to be. When we get our coat of arms we neatly forget that in all likelihood we bear the name because we once tilled the fields and did the fighting for an ancient Lord of the Manor. On the other side of that coin when you realize the number of ancestors we collect even in say, ten generations we’re all likely related to someone important. I am very distantly related to the Churchills through the Spencers and through that connection to Sir Francis Drake, or rather to his father and brother since he had no children of his own. Whatever the reality is, part of society is believing that we have a special background setting us somewhat apart. It’s a myth, but an essential one.

Our music, especially the traditional variety, paints love and marriage in terms of a land over the rainbow. We shelter from our kids for as long as we can – which is often way too long – from the fact that relationships have much heavy weather involved and that it is never happily ever after.

Our fairy tales, often a mixture of myth, legend and bits of truth paint an unreal picture of the world yet they are entertaining and as childhood passes, children know and accept the basic untruthfulness of what they’ve been read.

Saint Nicholas, whose relationship to the Christian church is misty and whose connection to Christmas tenuous at best, has come to symbolize the message of Christmas. Peace … Goodwill … Charity … a suspension of the day to day incivility under which the human race labours.

For 20 years now I’ve had Santa in my show and the pleasure he has given child and adult alike is incalculable. I might say also that many very amusing things have come from the mouths of the babes he talks to.

What happens when the truth comes out?

The child starts disbelieving, usually, in early grade school when, prompted by older brothers and sisters, the existence of Santa Claus is pooh-poohed. There follows a period of time when the child, not wanting to jeopardize what has always been a good thing by lack of faith, continues to express his fidelity. Then comes the denouement. Mum and Dad ‘fess up and invariably advise their child that Santa Claus is real in the sense that he represents the spirit of Christmas. This revelation is a rite of passage as the child now joins the bigger kids in keeping Santa alive in the beliefs of those younger.

It’s not just harmless – it’s a good thing. In a world of cynicism, hate, violence and indigestible change Santa Claus preserves childhood innocence for just a wee while. Can this be so bad?

Finally, have the do-gooders, the "higher purpose persons", the oh-so-politically-correct crowd nothing better to cure in this world than the ancient myth that, for such a few years of a child’s life, permits them to turn away from the harsh world around them and live a bit of a dream? And is there any evidence of harm here other than in the minds of those who always think they know best?

Merry Christmas, and all that means, to all of you.