Here Comes Santa Claus...

I am a sucker for a Santa Claus movie. Traditional, bad ass, looking to hand over the family business, you name it, I've watched it and probably really liked it. Unless Santa is an asshole, then I hated it. Rudolph is a fine Rankin/Bass production EXCEPT for Santa. He's a crank and a bully and I don't like it. I'm actually a little bummed because there has been a new Santa movie on my TV homescreen all month but it stars Mel Gibson and I won't watch him in anything. First he invaded my beloved Wick movies and now Santa. Fucker...

ANYWAY...

I love Santa. I think Santa might have been my first radicalizing idea. Everyone gets a gift. The trick is that no child is really on the naughty list. He sees the good in all of them. Universal Basic Gift Giving. Corrupted, of course, by rich assholes giving their kids a lot of stuff instead of one great Santa gift. But anyway...

I love him.

I think it could be like when you wean a kitten too early and so they tend to chew up everything, or suck on their own paws, or get neurotic. When I was like five (it could have been 4 or 6 but I'm pretty sure it was 5) opening my Santa gift I said, "Oh look, Santa has the same wrapping paper as we do." I thought it was cool. I mean Santa has the same wrapping paper as we do! My parents on the other hand breathed a sigh of relief that they wouldn't have to do the whole Santa thing anymore and assumed I'd figured it out. I hadn't. But that was the last year for Santa.

I decided in High School to announce to everyone that I believed in Santa and basically dared them to deny it. And because I decided he was real, he was. When Katie was born we used to joke that it would be an odd day when she stopped believing considering I still did.

And I still do.

Santa is as real as anything else you want to believe in. Saint Nicholas. The Spirit of Christmas. That magical feeling that you get this time of year. It's best seen through kids. And isn't it sad that kids will believe in someone who is just good and kind and brings presents no strings attached but eventually you let that go and realize it's all made up? I mean wouldn't the world be a better place if we all believed that being good for goodness sake was the right way to be? And wouldn't we all benefit from that? I mean, maybe not a mystery gift under the tree, but a little more magic wouldn't hurt.

All of this is to first off wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wish that you had at least one magical moment this holiday season. And the second is as a forward for the next blog, a repost of a couple Santa stories.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good Santa, I mean no asshole Santas am I right?