TRADITIONS: A HARMLESS BIT OF FUN?

Evil Grin Santa Claus

The last time I heard Santa Claus is possibly real was in kindergarten, upon seeing  my Christmas eve stockings filled with shiny coins, with gifts to boot just a foot beneath.

I must have been quite pragmatic even then but this physical "evidence" was all I needed to restore my swiveling faith to steadfast stillness. At least for another year.

Reality have a way of catching up, thank goodness, and soon enough you slowly grow apart  from every white lie people told you in the name of fun and games...



Probably, in the same vein, spirit or excuse, some news bosses, in cahoots with NORAD, have found it in their heart to think it timely to glaze these commercial holidays with white lies by tracking and reporting the supposed whereabouts of the fabled fat old man on a 24-hour flying sleigh ride across the globe. Since NORAD apparently can't track the flesh of a flying reindeer, kids were supposed to call in and report their first hand shadowy encounters. And oh, they have been doing this since 1955, and people are playing along year after year. Well, not everybody plays along. But the brave few who would criticize the tradition are branded a "Scrooge" and ostracized.

I can't help but quote Proverbs 22: 6 (from NIV)

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." 

People who grew up indoctrinated in the tradition unspurprisingly ended up playing along as an adult. And the doctrine I'm talking about is not even about the bearded Santa, (which most adults would dismiss as fantasy anyway, assuming they reached psychological adulthood.). I'm talking about the doctrine of letting your kids believe a stupid white lie for as long as they are capable and willing to believe. 

And we wonder why we lost parental credibility with our own kids when they reached puberty?