“Santa’s Sweat Shop” – reposted with permission

Santa’s Sweat Shop by Jessica Ward It’s no secret that I hate the holidays. I have tried to celebrate them. My favorite holiday character is Scrooge; unlike him, I don’t have the ghosts of Christmas past, present, or future to help me see the error of my ways. I am so over the “God bless us every one,” I want to take Tiny Tim’s crutch and knock him over the head with it. We try desperately to hold on to the Christmas holiday traditions that have been successfully preserved and embedded into our minds. We don’t question the rather questionable customs. With Halloween, the inevitable dangers are so widespread that we now have our candyx-rayed and pedophiles have had their trick-or-treating rights revoked. Conversely, Christmas has remained unchanged with our ever-changing times. Do we feel that Santa Claus is an acceptable holiday icon for the children of today? He’s a really old man, who has no children of his own, but loves kids so much he has spent countless years overlooking poor little elves frantically slaving away as they make toys for the Santa following children of the world. He is welcome into your homes. If you think about it, Santa really fit’s the stereotypical profile of a child molester. What parent would let their child desire the attention of a grown man who has no children and a never-ending supply of gifts and candy? (Michael Jackson) I would be skeptical. I just think it’s confusing. We teach children not to take candy from strangers… with Santa being an exception. We still lug our kids to the mall for the traditional sitting on Santa’s lap photo-op. I have seen so many trembling babies being forced to sit on Santa’s lap so mom and dad can capture the perfect moment of Baby’s First Christmas. But all the babies are crying hysterically! They don’t want to sit on some strange man’s lap! Still, you convince your kids to pose for pictures. It’s traumatizing. Santa is never ever liked at first glance – we have to teach kids that he gives candy and presents, and then they love him. Is Santa the foundation for all of the greed and excess in our consumer-thriving, uncaring economy? He gets all the thanks and gratitude while most people are still paying off last year’s holiday generosity. We do it to ourselves.