My Santa Claus belief

Yesterday we watched Fred Claus. A movie about Santa Claus's older brother. I love the concept. It was hilarious. It also reminded me of my own belief in Santa Claus. When I was little my mother had already told me the whole story of how Santa Claus was already a story and didn't exist as a physical person but as a spirit. In a weird way I think this caused me to belief in Santa Claus more, later in life. Even though by second grade there were kids who raised their hands when asked by the teacher if they believed in Santa Claus, and I wasn't one of them, later in Middle school, I recall talking about Santa Claus with my aunt in Philly, after watching the Santa Claus. as if he were real. It was almost like Santa did not exist in Boston for me, but he did exist in Philadelphia.

Noah kept asking me questions about elves in a way that would make it seem that the whole notion of Santa Claus was completely foreign to him. How could this be? We used to watch the Polar Express every day. I asked him if he remembered last Christmas. He did not. That was weird to me too, but I guess he is still young.

Anyway, in "Fred Claus" there is a part where this inner city kid is Fred's buddy, and he gets taken by social services. Later he gets moved to the top of the naughty list for complaining about Santa's hypocrisy and then fighting a bunch of kids writing letters to Santa. The words he uses are straight out of one of Fred's rants against his older brother.

I thought about what I would say to some inner city kids who were debating the existence of Santa Claus, or what arguments I would use anyway.

#1 Belief in Santa Claus is the same as reasonable in as any other religious belief. In fact, t is much easier that one man deliver so many presents in a night, especially with technology like the internet and the ability of our own government to "print" money electronically, than it is to belief in an Abrahamic God that is master of not only the Universe, but the multi verse. So arguing that belief of Santa Claus is unreasonable, is argument against religion itself. Do you want to get into that fight?

#2 You guys have your gifts ideas all wrong. If Santa is based on Odin (he is) and Odin's gifts were poetry (the ability to write it) and sometimes he gave gold (which can be considered business ideas or your stocks going up) and also stories, this gifts are entirely possible.

Now let's just invite out Odin Santa to the debate shall we?


 Kids: How do you deliver all those gifts to everyone who asks for them in one night?

Odin: Who says I deliver any gifts whatsoever? I give out one or two when I feel like it. I take them when I feel like it too. After all these gold rings and the mead of poetry are stolen.

Kids: (nmore nervous now) Uhh okay, How do the elves make all those gifts?

Odin: How should I know? I stole this stuff from the Dark Elves in Alfheim. Or sometimes We call them Dwarves. I snuck in a hole by turning into a snake and then banged this girl to her pleasure and she just handed over the mead of poetry.

Okay Odin let's just stop right there cause your scaring the children. But you can see where Santa's routes are.

Now let's look at how kids are just asking for the wrong gifts and how Odin Santa can actually offer more hope then Commercial Santa (who Odin would still approve of as a good public front.)

Odin can give the gift of poetry, or spitting rhymes and dropping records. And there is no reason why it only has to be Christmas when he does this. So he can help poor kids either get monetarily wealthier, or at least be poetic about their circumstance and therefore be wealthier in a different way. But he doesn't give gifts to everyone. And as Jolly as he is, he has been known to slit throats for fun. But since he is just an idea anyway, let's keep him Jolly and friendly and mostly good, the way he has developed. But I'm just saying, do you really want to ask Santa for some cheap thing made in China that costs between $20 -$200? I mean let's say it is $1,000.00 Or let's say you ask Santa for a car or a house. Is that really more valuable than say, an idea like Facebook, or an idea to start FUBU, or the gift to write poetry and novels like Zora Neale Hurston? The latter died poor, but after death what is wealth? Her works are still important now?

Sometimes we criticize kids for asking Santa for too much. Maybe they are asking for such small tokens compared to what they really could have. And asking for gifts that are less tangible, are actually more possible to receive aren't they? Because they come from within you. Just a Christmas thought.

By the way I do prefer the Odin that has been converted to Christianity and stopped the throat slitting. I'm sure he likes it better too. He gets that much more in prayers and letters and offerings of cookies. Also he gets credit for physical deeds. How many Saints of gods can you say this about. Hundreds of millions ask for a specific thing and on Christmas morning, it is actually there. Who cares if the parents actually bought it? The point is there is a physical thing you can point to, every year.
That's pretty crazy.

But again, Kids should THINK BIGGER. Ask for the next Big IDEA.