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Kidnapped Santa

© Mary C. Legg

Gutenberg index L Frank Baum works http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/a...

"One would think that our good old Santa Claus, who devotes his days to making children happy, would have no enemies on all the earth; and, as a matter of fact, for a long period of time he encountered nothing but love wherever he might go

But the Daemons who live in the mountain caves grew to hate Santa Claus very much, and all for the simple reason that he made children happy."

A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/519

Baum opens his Christmas parable with the conflicts of love and hate, wealth and poverty, happiness and sadness. Although already an institution in the United States through the corruption of St Nicholas, Santa represents the base commercial aspects of American Consumerism. Derived from Christian sources, he represents happiness through mass accumulation. He does little to ease the agony of the world or bring peace to embattled countries. Unlike Dicken's Scrooge, he suffers no moral dilemma or repents of miserly living. In truth, Santa is a cardboard figure, planted in busy shopping malls and plastered on plate glass windows to keep the economy circulating in the darkest time of the year. Moreover, he lives at the frigid North Pole and annually drives about in an airborne sled drawn by a team of reindeer. Not much can be more ridiculous than this American fairytale of achieving happiness through commerical gain.

The protests begin, "but Santa represents the Spirit of Giving." Does he really? Enter a church during the Christmas season and what is more commonly heard: The Giving or The Getting? There might be a display of Christian Charity with a heap of presents going to a local orphanage or children's hospital once a year, but what about the impoverished members that live amongst the wealthy congregation? Does anyone approach them to help them establish a new business, enter a new program of study so that they can become more self-suffcient? Or is it really much more superficial than that with giving a present to satisfy a fleeting interest? How much is a doll or walkman really worth to a child when he does not have love and attention the year round or conscientious adults to provide him with a model of good living? How much are these things worth in comparison to the homeless poverty of many American children or the lack of dental and health care? Santa may indeed be symbolic of giving, but the serious question is what kind of giving?