It’s no secret that I hate the 
holidays. I have tried to celebrate them. My favorite holiday character is Scrooge; unlike him, I don’t have the ghosts of
Christmas past, present, or future to help me see the error of my
ways. I am so over the “God bless us every one,” I want to take Tiny
Tim’s crutch and knock him over the head with it.
We try desperately to hold on to the Christmas holiday traditions that
have been successfully preserved and embedded into our minds. We don’t
question the rather questionable customs. With Halloween, the
inevitable dangers are so widespread that we now have our candy
x-rayed and pedophiles have had their trick-or-treating rights
revoked.
Conversely, Christmas has remained unchanged with our ever-changing
times. Do we feel that Santa Claus is an acceptable holiday icon for
the children of today? He’s a really old man, who has no children of
his own, but loves kids so much he has spent countless years
overlooking poor little elves frantically slaving away as they make
toys for the Santa following children of the world. He is welcome into
your homes. If you think about it, Santa really fit’s the
stereotypical profile of a child molester. What parent would let their
child desire the attention of a grown man who has no children and a
never-ending supply of gifts and candy? (Michael Jackson) I would be
skeptical.
I just think it’s confusing. We teach children not to take candy from
strangers… with Santa being an exception. We still lug our kids to
the mall for the traditional sitting on Santa’s lap photo-op. I have
seen so many trembling babies being forced to sit on Santa’s lap so
mom and dad can capture the perfect moment of Baby’s First Christmas.
But all the babies are crying hysterically! They don’t want to sit on
some strange man’s lap! Still, you convince your kids to pose for
pictures. It’s traumatizing.
Santa is never ever liked at first glance – we have to teach kids
that he gives candy and presents, and then they love him. Is Santa
the foundation for all of the greed and excess in our
consumer-thriving, uncaring economy? He gets all the thanks and
gratitude while most people are still paying off last year’s holiday
generosity. We do it to ourselves.
The Mental Ward 