To Believe or Not to Believe!!

Christmas is just a day away. All the people, irrespective of which pocket of the world they belong to would be gearing for the most awaited holiday season. Arcades and malls and even street shopping goes to crazy levels as the days grow near.

In certain parts of the world the Christmas lights are switched on as early as November and if you are shopping for Christmas decorations anytime in December you are bound to attract a few stares of horror. Advertising and marketing people are the most over worked people this time of the year coz whether or not the product is related to the festival they have to wreck their brains over how “Santa” would be selling them. Poor Santa is made to endorse anything and everything under the sun in a hope to cash in on his popularity before the season ends. No sooner it does end than he is packed off with a one way ticket to the North Pole for the next eleven months. What a sigh of relief!… don’t have to worry about building a high anticipation level to the kids for being good and getting gifts from Santa.

Santa-mania in India is though a little less over whelming. Except for some commercialization of the season it doesn’t really hold a grand meaning. Are our kids prepared to meet santa? Let us picture this… the pictures shown of him are of an extremely cute chubby and “pleasantly” plump man with rosy cheeks and snowflake beard. But my memory of Christmas father / santa is rather a disturbing one for we had to endure a rather hideous representation of the same with fake masks on the rather skinny under nourished Santa with a cushion for his belly…to an extent where some of us would start howling just at the very sight of him, forget about enjoying a great story sitting on his laps.

So how does one keep a child’s belief in Santa intact irrespective of his image? Some may even argue if one should believe in Santa at all… I have a very strong opinion about making your child believe in Santa not just for gifts “he” would bring… but the goodness and joy he is supposed to spread. The idea behind the big guy and not just the guy himself. Children know no bias. They believe only what they see. So a face to the whole concept is essential (or so also must have been thought by a certain cola company who introduced santa to the world eons ago)

Santa is believed to get millions of letters each year with number of requests for toys, books, candies, baby brother/ sister (u bet, he does :)). It’s because he is believed in so much by children around the world. Lets encourage our little ones to develop that belief too maybe right now for a selfish reason of getting their goodies but in return of being a kind and caring kid.. which I think is a fair deal. As the kids grow they will develop faith in different people and things but we can get the ball rolling with Santa.

Though the whole idea of Christmas was celebrating birth of the Son of God… but in today’s world Santa seems to have taken precedence over HIM.