"Santa, Santa, Santa... It's always Santa!"
-- Jan Brady, sort of.
I remember that moment in my childhood that I came to the horrible conclusion: "There IS no Santa Claus!" I had been getting the run-around from my parents and siblings, who were all much older than me, as to the whole 'mechanics of the situation' problem. You know, the 'around the world in a night', 'down the chimney' stuff, that in and of itself wouldn't have tipped the scales, but you know what did? It was the story of Rudolf, that in my child's mind was somehow twisted into a tale of co-dependency and seasonal compulsion .... ultimately culminating in my six-year-old opinion: "This is bullshit, they're all lying to me...." Paranoid? Maybe.
You see, I was an emotional wreck as a child. Some would argue that I still am, but they should really be careful of THEIR glass houses... anyway.... I would often become OBSESSED with stories, people, places. My copy of 'Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer' was just one of those objects. The story, we all know, isn't all THAT compelling: outcast comes from behind, saves the day, praised by all, happily ever after. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But as a 6 year old there was something incredibly powerful and sad about the whole thing. No, I don't liken myself to Andie McDowell's character in Sex, Lies & Videotape wondering, "...but what about all the garbage?" I was deeply disturbed at the cruelty suffered by Rudolph, and was convinced that the whole episode of the 'Foggy Christmas Eve' would blow over and soon he would be an outcast again. No matter what my poor mother told me I cried and cried about Rudolph's plight. And in my eyes there seemed to be MUCH more that I wasn't being told. Everything about Santa, Christmas, etc. just didn't seem to add up. Perhaps THAT'S what I was really upset about. I was touching on my eventual disillusionment, my dashed hopes and dreams.... they would all amount to a pile of lies.
Apparently I'm not alone.
The belief in Santa Claus by children is widespread. In an AP-AOL News poll, 86% of American adults believed in Santa as children, with the age of 8 being the average for learning that he is not real, although 15% still believed after the age of 10.
Parental and societal encouragement of this belief is not without controversy. Groups have contended, "Parents who encourage a belief in Santa are foisting a grand deception on their children, who inevitably will be disappointed and disillusioned." Gee, isn't that a current talking point used by Republicans about investigating ANYTHING they've done over the past 7 years?
Yeah, THAT!
But wait, is this all any different from having 'faith' in metaphorical manifestations of societal archetypes? Wow, is there such a thing? It sounded good. Look, whether Santa is coming down your chimney, ringing a bell on a street corner, entertaining kids at the mall, or selling Coca-Cola.... he's deeply ingrained in popular culture and there is no expunging that will cleanse his red coat and boots from our children's minds.
So I guess the whole Santa thing was pretty normal for me. Rudolph on the other hand.... I'm still recovering from.
