Santa your Self, 2012 edition
No other god can hold a candle to Santa in my book. He's the real deal. I worship him with my whole heart, in a way I could never give it up for Jesus or even Shiva who is seriously kick-ass when it comes to mythical beings. Nope, for me it's Team Santa until death do us part. And it's not even about the presents.
Nope, it's about the List.
Santa is not just Father Christmas, but the Father List. From him did my life-long habit of writing things down, and checking them twice, derive. As did my habit of using December to look back on the year and think about how I was good (and how I was not), and to begin making plans for the coming year. Santa sits at the head of this whole process for me, a benevolent goodness that cheers my own. My Santa is not a lump of coal Santa. That's so Grinch.
An annual conspiracy of goodness.
There is also something for me about this annual conspiracy of goodness, of willful wishful belief in the big man in the red suit, that calls out the best in all of us, that makes us all wide-eyed hopeful children again. All in the interest of dazzling some wide-eyed hopeful children. Something about that makes me so glad every year, the way in which adults are willing to create magic for children, even just for a few years, to induct them into this beautiful vision so that they can, when it's their turn, create it for others. I wish everyone to have this, regardless of religion. Santa is such a rewarding myth for all people, all the time.
Santa is a verb
These days, since I don't have a little child around anymore, I Santa my own self. I go shopping at the mall and get happy seeing the supremely well-appointed Santa outside the Macy's. I make my lists and wrap presents, hiding them from puppy teeth. I watch "Miracle on 34th Street" and "Elf "and make cookies. Without a kid around, I write a letter to Santa in my head, knowing I'm writing just to me, and think about all the ways I was very, very good this year. On Christmas morning, I wake up, before dawn, filled with excitement, remembering sitting at the top of the stairs with my sisters in our robes and slippers, waiting for our parents to be done with their interminable ablutions so that we could run downstairs, throw open the doors to the living room and see traces of the big guy's magic. Remembering The Kid's happy face, taking down the stocking, unwrapping the Santa surprises.
Santa is coming. You KNOW him. Jump around!
originally posted December 19, 2011, slightly tweaked and modified December 9, 2012
Reader Comments (1)
I love this. I am jumping. xo