Why there is One Santa Astronaught Ornament on the Tree

Why I Kept One Santa on the Tree - continuation of yesterday's post

 

                Santa may have become symbolic of modern American consumerism with an image detracting from the true spirit of Christmas, but the story does get some things right.  To be fair to the argument I presented last post (http://darcyleech.blogspot.com/2013/12/why-there-are-no-santa-ornaments-except.html) about how we should be more purposeful in how we choose to celebrate holidays, I want to tell you why I DID keep one Santa on our tree in reach of my impressionable toddler.

                My son already knows about Santa, has seen Santa ‘in person’ and seen gifts unwrapped that were from Santa.  Like it or not, Santa is part of the mythos of America and my son has zero chance of growing up without Santa entering his realm of influence.  I’m not out to destroy the image of Santa in my house, but I am out to disarm the mythology of Santa and not give the consumerist ethos power over my child before he is old enough to make his own decisions.

                I want to read Eli the Santa story one day, when he is older, when he can differentiate fact from fantasy, and when his good habits are in place longer.  Grown men who know Santa is not real do good things in the image of Santa, collecting toys for the less fortunate, giving of themselves, and bringing joy through good cheer.  Santa isn’t iconoclastic or vile in a way that the image doesn’t deserve a place in our lives; in fact, Santa deserves a purposeful place in our lives – as an acknowledged symbol of good will used in modern America to spur consumerist sales and promote ‘cradle to the grave advertising’ by targeting children’s emotions and irrational hopes. 

                The Santa story has good aspects.  We should be encouraged to give to people.  Santa gives toys to everyone, regardless of race, social status, or prestige and instead judges on people’s choices and what the individual has control over rather than what they are born into.  Santa wants to help others.  Santa cares about benevolence.  Santa is a philanthropist.  All of those are respectable traits. 

                The ornament of Santa that did make it on to our tree is an astronaut.  It’s humorous to think of old man Santa visiting space in a defunct missile program with his beard outside his oxygen helmet.  Santa the astronaut poses no threat to my son’s ethical and financial future because this Santa is obviously fantastical, perhaps even slightly a parody of how Santa travels the world in one night. 

                I don’t want my son to embrace the consumerist mentality presented by the modern image of Santa, but when he is old enough, I certainly want him to acknowledge the story of Santa, the intended moral of the story, and one day when he is old enough, how Santa’s image is used by those who wish to gain from other’s spending.  We still have Santa in our house; I don’t mind children around Eli enjoying Santa or talking about Santa, or Eli getting Santa wrapping paper on his gifts.  (I might have to apologize if my son repeats what I have told him about Santa not being real, but Eli wouldn’t be the only influence in the world to blurt out that idea…) 

                Part of the power in looking at the shift and impact of the modern American Santa ideology and the trend in consumerism that has become Black Friday shifting into Thanksgiving after dinner work and shopping for a things based society is that after we acknowledge the lurking influences that may come with Santa, we can find a peaceful equilibrium in knowing how to approach the Santa mythology with our children. 

                My son knows Santa isn’t real.  He also knows that dragons aren’t real (I think…). He isn’t going to send a gift list to any dragons or Santa and I’m not going encourage his believe in either entity rewarding his behavior through magical means.  Eli has a dragon toy in the house he likes to pretend play fly with.  There’s a Christmas ornament of Santa on the tree Eli may take a natural interest in.  However, I’m not going to purposefully promote a myth embedded with consumerism and lack of logical financial restraints.  I’m going to make sure my son knows the quality of truth about Santa and purposefully protect my son from the media and corporate manipulation of an image which works wonders on a child’s imagination. 

                In short, I don’t have to actively work against Santa to encourage my son to form values based on Christianity before consumerism.  I’m not worried about Santa being around my child, but I will prepare him and have adult talk about what the Santa myth carries with it in a world out to liberate you from your dollars and your restraint.  I don’t believe that purposefully deciding not to make Santa an emphasis of our family holiday should threaten those who do.  I don’t mind if your personal choice is to have your children believe in Santa, I just hope you are purposeful in this parenting choice and consider the larger social aspects of the Modern American Santa image has become.

                I don’t mind Santa as an astronaut ornament on my tree, I just purposefully won’t give him any power beyond that.

While being purposeful in deciding how to treat modern American holidays, hopefully you ponder the