Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Monday, November 21, 2011

The End of Santa

Last night, while working (well, hardly working) at the Puzzle Factory, I got a "very serious call" frm Miranda, with "a very serious question." After a few quick words from her mother, to brief me in, I sat down and braced myself for one of those unique parenting moments, albeit a bittersweet moment.

There was a proverb in early English (circa 1440) that was written like this: "Ye wote wele of all thing moste be an ende." To all goodnthings, there must be an end - sadly, not even obese, Artic-dwelling elves are exempt... let me explain...

Apparently, what had transpired was that a highly regarded, expert source (one of Miranda's 7 year-old girlfriends from school) had told her that Santa was... a fraud, a sham, a phony, a bluff, charlatan, a cheat, counterfeit, deception, fake, a hoax... you get the idea.

Yes, even Mommy had fessed up to wrapping presents and hiding them around the house, petending to be Santa. Still, the matter was not settled until she spoke to Daddy - after all, I am the chief perpetrator of the myth, and therefore the chief authority on the subject. Indeed, she even remembered me saying last year that I have Santa's cell phone number.

What is the speed of thought? Fast? Really fast? Extra super-duper stupendously fast? Whatever. In that split second, I sat there
wondering why I had lied to my beautiful child, filling her adorable
head with this absurd fiction. Why do we do this to our children and
how did it start?

There are numerous parallels between Santa Claus and the figure of Odin, a major god amongst the pagan Germanic peoples prior to Christianity. The Germanic peoples were Christianized and retained elements of their indigenous traditions, surviving in various forms into modern depictions of Santa Claus.

Odin was sometimes recorded, at the native Germanic holiday of Yule, as leading a great hunting party through the sky. Two books from Iceland, the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, describe Odin as riding an eight-legged horse named
Sleipnir that could leap great distances, giving rise to comparisons
to Santa Claus's reindeer. Further, Odin was referred to by many names
in Skaldic poetry, some of which describe his appearance or functions
- all meaning "long beard" or "Yule figure".

According to some traditions, children would place their boots, filled
with carrots, straw, or sugar, near the chimney for Odin's flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir's food with gifts or candy. This practice still survives in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands and became associated with Saint Nicholas since Christianization. In other countries it has been replaced by the hanging of stockings at the chimney in homes.

These pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history
and folklore, notably St. Nicholas and Sinterklaas, merged with the British character Father Christmas to create the character known to Britons and Americans as Santa Claus.

In the British colonies of North America and later the United States, British and Dutch versions of the gift-giver merged further. For example, in Washington Irving's History of New York, (1809), Sinterklaas was Americanized into "Santa Claus" (a name first used in the American press in 1773) but lost his bishop's apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. Irving's book was a lampoon of the Dutch culture of New York, and much of this portrait is his joking invention.

As years passed, Santa Claus evolved in popular culture into a large, heavyset person. One of the first artists to define Santa Claus's modern image was Thomas Nast, an American cartoonist of the 19th century. In 1863, a picture of Santa illustrated by Nast appeared in Harper's Weekly.

The story that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, may also have been a Nast creation. His Christmas image in the Harper's issue dated December 29, 1866 was a collage of engravings titled Santa Claus and His Works, which included the caption, "Santa Claussville, N.P." A color collection of Nast's pictures, published in 1869, had a poem also titled "Santa Claus and His ; by George P. Webster, who
wrote that Santa Claus's home was "near the North Pole, in the ice and
snow". The tale had become well known by the 1870s. A boy from
Colorado writing to the children's magazine The Nursery in late 1874
said, "If we didn't live so very far from the North Pole, I should ask
Santa Claus to bring me a donkey."

OK, that's all fine and nice, but why do we perpetuate this lie? And
then the answer came - it came as if drawn by eight tiny reindeer -
magic. That's the reason: magic. Every child should know the joy, for
however brief a time, before innocence is forever lost, before
cynicism takes hold, clamping its joyless death grip on their
imaginations - every child should have the experience of magic.

Last night that magic ended for my little PumpkinPie. As I explained
to her that Santa was a real idea, not a real person, she was inducted
into the society of "big people who know the truth," I reminded her
how much fun the Story of Santa is and she promised not to ruin it for
all of the "little kids" in kindergarten and first grade.

But still, as proud as I am of her sharp little mind some part of me
will always miss and mourn the awe inspired in my child on Christmas
morning by a plate of half-eaten cookies and a mostly empty glass of
milk, left out for Santa the eve before - evidence of magic.

Friday, November 04, 2011