Santa - a chubby, red, humble fella who, with his 12 reindeer, have carried the tradition of Christmas since 280 A.D on his sled with his sack full of presents. Scrooge or not, you can’t deny Santa’s fame outshines his existence, especially, with the younger generations who are overjoyed when on Christmas morning Santa has visited their house, eaten the goodies and made Christmas magical.
19 years on and I am still happy living within the potential myth that is St. Nicolas however, I ask you this – is it fair that the children of this world believe Santa is responsible for all their presents and not their parents who work tirelessly to tick off the Christmas list?
Don’t get me wrong, I am in complete favour of the Santa Claus Christmas tradition. I believe it is insanely magical the notion of Santa and his Elves working all year just to make Christmas as beautiful and fanatical as it is, and I definitely will be relaying the tales of the North pole to my children one day.
But I still can’t come to terms with something.
I grew up thinking that Santa was completely responsible for my presents, and my mum was just the messenger of my Christmas desires and I won’t lie – I was at times a greedy and excitable child, so my list was extensive. So, when it came to Christmas morning if I received my presents – I thanked Santa, not my blessed single mum of 3 kids who worked full time. And if I didn’t receive anything but all my friends did - I thought Santa didn’t like me. I never as a child appreciated the fact that my mum was the woman who put the presents under the tree and watched me thank a fictional character for her hard work.
I know prior, I stated that I would relay this North Pole tale onto my children which inevitably sounds hypocritical to everything I just said, but the way I want to tell the story is giving both me and Santa the credit. Santa is a well-deserved piece of childhood imagination, but I would preach that children should be taught that Santa has helped their parents and not took all the credit. Maybe I will retell it that Santa and I went halves, or that Santa informed me that they were so good that he would give them more than what I already had.
I think it’s vital that we appreciate from a young age how hard our parents work to bring our happiness. It saddens me really that I never once on Christmas day as a child thanked my mum when I could not idolise or be more thankful for anyone in my life. And it isn’t even just at Christmas time she does it, that woman has not stopped for my whole 19 years of being alive and the older I get, the more I realise how expensive life is – not just in money, but in time as well. And, even though Santa is so heavily associated with Christmas, we need to stop and remember that Christmas is about love, unity, and appreciation and not just about presents from Santa.
Overall, I think the lesson from this is, we need to learn to thank our parents and appreciate our family, because whether we get presents or not, our family is what makes Christmas magical.
