Christmas is an amazing time for symbols. It’s a symbol factory! Better than dream time because the symbols aren’t something running around in our head at night, but things which everyone can see and interact with. I’ve thought about creating a called “Claim that Christmas Symbol” but it seems that people are already playing it without there being any formal rules. So like a good bar brawl I’ll just sit back and watch.
So far we’ve got the usual people trying to be politically correct by mentioning or even owning and misusing Menorah while practicing Jews explain that it’s not a candelabra that you just keep lit on the table and has nothing to do with Christmas. There are the ethnic groups talking about their disconnect with a white Santa Clause, pundits trying to point out the facts that Santa is White and that can’t be altered to make other’s feel more connected. Then still others pointing out that Santa Clause could possibly have originated from a Greek saint (that part of Greece which is now owned by Turkey) and so he wouldn’t have been white to begin with.
Then we move on to the argument that Jesus was white, wherein the Jews throw their hands up again and someone points out that he lived in the middle east and doesn’t qualify as white no matter how he’s painted. Continuing with the Christian symbols we have the fight over manger scenes being placed on publicly owned properties and so non-Christian groups want equal representation. For details I point you towards the uproar over the Festivus Pole. And of course there is always the issue of Christianity having coopted the winter solstice festival and what does a Christmas tree have to do with Christ in the manger, how does Santa fit in with Jesus, and what would Jesus do if he saw all the greed and the merchandising of the holiday, which makes everyone uncomfortable to think of the symbol of baby Jesus getting pissed and trashing a mall.
And then turn the corner and you have the whole Santa Claus thing and all the elves doing nothing but make toys and wrap presents all year and whether or not they can be dentists. And what does it mean that he’s still riding in a sleigh, that he’s pulled by reindeer and not antelope or oxen and, the big one, has the notion of naughty and nice lists changed with our culture moving out of a moral/value driven society and into a culture of economics? Let alone is there enough memory space on any device to store all of that list? Is Santa Apple or Android? Can we fold that many symbols into each other without our brains exploding at some point?
And if that’s not enough, what the heck is NORAD actually doing tracking Santa? Is this a government agency giving credence to Santa’s very existence or our tax dollars finally doing something worthwhile?