Music from https://filmmusic.io"Thinking Music" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Show script: (may differ slightly from spoken word)

The older I get the less I understand accumulating stuff. Christmas used to be a time that I would look forward to with excitement because I would get things I liked. I got art sets, some science stuff, and the occasional clothes. I went to my grandparent’s house and got presents there too, so there was a lot to look forward to. There was also a lot to dread. There was the unpredictability of my mother who would go from loving and attentive to withdrawn and demanding if you said anything wrong. There were her long-drawn-out sessions of reverting back to a child where I became the caretaker of her even though I was a child and she was an adult. There was the digestive pain that I got from eating ice cream from grandma, and if I said, “I don’t want it, my tummy hurts,” then I would basically be starting a family fight. There was the heavy drinking from my grandparents and the cloudy dreadful cold that hurt every bone throughout the day and the winter season. Now that I’m older, I don’t look back and appreciate those things like some people said I would. Instead, I look back and think of it as a divorce, or a death of a life that hurt for too long. There is a disassociation I created between me and younger me. I can talk about my childhood and my upbringing, but the memories are of a “different person.” Santa used to represent a jolly fat man who would bring me art to express my pain and humiliation that I was reminded of deserving by my parents. Now I wonder why we teach kids about Santa in the first place…

I think that imagination and curiosity are the baselines of exploration, and as we grow older, we have turned that curiosity into daydreaming. We have become smarter and no longer believe in the tooth fairy, but fantasize about altered realities and different versions of our lives all the time. Our Santa is now a Santa we tell for our kids or a memory from our childhood if we don’t have any kids, but what we have accumulated from those holiday memories remains under our mental tree. Personally, I don’t believe in telling kids about Santa because I think having them believe that story is useless and the truth of where the gifts came from can create a greater appreciation and bond between the family because the kids are not grateful to an imaginary character.

When kids start asking in depth questions about Santa because they are unraveling the truth, we tend to prolong Santa’s mystery a little longer so the kids can “experience the joy,” but eventually they figure it out. Development and intuition parallel each other and those directions only get strengthened with honesty and safety. Santa doesn’t have to be this jolly mythical figure who lives with elves and delivers presents. He can be a representation of the accumulations throughout the year and what we need to do next year to be better than this year. He can represent a bond between parents and kids that is build on safety, love, honesty, boundaries, development, gratitude, and growth. Santa doesn’t have to bring toys and art supplies. He can bring a reflection of how we have conducted our selves and what we have learned throughout the year.

I would much rather have gifts of radical self-development than an art set at any age.

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