DO YOU BELIEVE IN SANTA CLAUS?

Though Christmas is NOT one of the main festivals that I celebrate according to my religion, yet for being in a catholic school I was made to understand that Christmas represents gifts from Santa Claus who comes down our chimneys at midnight of Christmas eve with promises of rewards, and this used to ensure a good behavior from all us kids round the year. But today when I've grown up, I wonder how many other grown ups still believe there is really a Santa Claus? Well, Santa Claus is not merely a wishful thinking for me, but he exists… as certainly as love, generosity and devotion exist. Alas! How dreary it would be if there was no Santa Claus?! Without 'him' there would be no child-like faith, no poetry, no presents and no romance to even make tolerable this season of warmth, love and merriment.

Some of us grown-ups might ask, “Do we need that old fat man with the big white beard to celebrate Christmas?” And there are those who would say we do not need an icon whose most popular depiction arises out of the early color-coding principles of a soft drink manufacturer (for the red and white that we associate with Santa, were designed by the Coca Cola Company in an attempt to link Christmas with the drinking of their flagship product). There are those again who would argue that gift-giving has become an arena of conflict in which families struggling to maintain a decent economic foothold in a cut-throat world are put to the test by the manipulative strategies of advertising & marketing gimmicks. Perhaps it’s time for such grown-ups to re-look at Santa Claus and re-contextualize why we do really need him…
…because we need to give. Our genes may be selfish, our basic and more primal instincts may be aimed at ensuring the survival of our own self and our genetically linked family, but there’s much to be said for giving too. And we are not talking about gifts alone here... we’re talking about giving of our time and effort and of helping others. Let us try to redefine Santa Claus as the spirit of giving and we would see why we need him more than ever.

Our world is one of closed spaces and closed minds. It is one that allows the individual very little control over the way things are. This works in the area of personal relationships too. The more we give, the more connected we become, the better our emotional health and the emotional temperament of the relationship becomes. And it really holds true that whatever we give, comes around. But we should not equate this 'giving' with ‘the parcel with the red-ribbon’ and the little card with a quickie message… because if we agree that Santa is a human necessity, that he is only an embodiment of the spirit of putting others before one-self, that he is a convenient and time-honored icon to represent all that is generous and giving in human nature, WE HAVE TO BE SANTA ourselves.

Yes, Santa still lives. Commerce won’t let the fat man in the funny red suit with white fur trimmings and the three-pillow-paunch, who is a mere 1700 years old, die because he’s too valuable a property. And his this act of giving without asking for anything in return repeated again and again, year after year, spreads joy and happiness all over, making everyone jolly and happy too.

Merry Christmas to all and also to the man who says HO! HO!! HO!!!