Rewards for the naughty
Written by: | 3 Dec 2008
Every December 24, people around the world lure their children to bed with tales of magic and wonder, filling their hearts and heads with visions of sugar plums, little men in funny clothes and best of all, presents.
The story of Mr. Clause and his entourage is known far and wide and practiced by millions. Children the world ‘round lay in wait and pray for that fateful night all year long, I know I did; for the most part it is harmless fun.
Seriously, the audacity of one man to say he can fly around the world with magic reindeer and fulfill the wishes and dreams of all the little children in the world is outstanding. I personally believe that Santa deserves his own beer commercial.
I personally believe that Santa deserves his own beer commercial.
Unfortunately today even kids that are on Santa’s naughty list get rewarded, even after he’s checked it twice.
Materialism rots this world. We buy when we get depressed, we buy for parties, we buy for friends, family, neighbors, kids and just because we can.
This leaves thousands of people in debt all the time and in the long run most of it won’t be used more than a couple of times, if at all. The real disheartening point in this becomes evident when the history behind such a celebration is viewed.
The history
In the fourth century, Jesus’ birthday, stated as Dec. 25, was declared a holiday by church officials in a political act to convert Pagans to Christianity.
In Scandinavian the Norse would begin celebrating the Winter Solstice on Dec. 21 and would continue for around 12 days.
In this case, as for other cultures, winter was a perfect time for celebration as most of the cattle would be butchered and the beer finally fermented and ready to drink. For many this was the only time of the year they had fresh meat available.
Gifts and the tale of Santa Clause first came to be with St. Nicholas.
Saint Nicholas
Born in the third century in what is now Turkey, Nicholas was a priest and eventually a Bishop. He was of wealthy descent and was therefore able to go around and aid people however he saw fit.
With Nicholas’ charity and standing in the church, he easily became Father Christmas to the people.
Nicholas’ transformation into Santa Clause took time and travel through several cultures before finally reaching his current embodiment as Santa Clause.
Christmas wasn’t even truly accepted in America until the nineteenth century when it was declared a national holiday in 1870.
And finally, Santa
The image of Santa truly came to life, however, in the 1890’s when the Salvation Army required financial aid to supply their free Christmas dinners. They began dressing up the unemployed as Santas to raise funds for the organization.
That one act alone truly embodies the Christmas spirit. Today most children seem to lose sight of that. An old, tired and cliché argument I know, but it’s true.
In today’s world most people are just happy to be employed and rightly so with the unemployment rate skyrocketing; Arizona’s alone standing at 5.9 percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s web site, bls.gov.
Responsibility
Perhaps this goes back to teaching children a sense of responsibility. With increasing urbanization, “how to” parenting and child raising books and a plummeting education system, maybe kids just fall short of grasping the idea that life involves more than themselves and everything that you do affects others somewhere.
Is there such a thing as a chore anymore?
I know that I was involved in carrying out chores as soon as I was old enough. Is there such a thing as a chore anymore?
But why do we as a people entertain the need to tell little lies to our children? Doesn’t that go against every goal and trait that we try to instill in them their whole lives?
Perhaps it’s simply because Santa is one of the last truly magical and happy experiences left in the world.
Regardless of the cause, Christmas remains an important holiday and time of year for celebration as well as reflection.
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