JustPrompts: Misc -- Believing In Santa
Dec. 25th, 2008 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clockwork_docDid you ever believe in Santa Claus? Do you still believe now? Why or why not?
As a child I certainly believed in Santa Claus. My mother was very keen on preserving the fiction for her children. She wrote little notes to us signed “Santa Claus,” made sure we left out cookies and milk, and told us all sorts of little stories about Santa to keep us in the mood. One of my favorites was when she told us her own take on Rudolph, and how he went from the outcast reindeer to one of the most respected animals in Santa’s herd. Given I was always an outcast child myself, this struck a special chord in me.
I stopped believing in Santa around the age of ten. That’s the year I caught my father putting the presents under the tree, and my mother writing Santa’s note. My classmates had been telling me Santa wasn’t real for a while now, so I was prepared – but it was still kind of upsetting. Especially when I thought about Rudolph and realized none of that was real too.
Nowadays. . .well, I don’t know. I didn’t believe in faeries either when I became an adult. Or rifts into alternate universes. (Well, the latter was less “I don’t believe” and more “That’s purely theoretical at this point.”) And both of those turned out to be real. So maybe, somewhere, Santa is real. I hope he is. A figure like that needs to be real somewhere.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
As a child I certainly believed in Santa Claus. My mother was very keen on preserving the fiction for her children. She wrote little notes to us signed “Santa Claus,” made sure we left out cookies and milk, and told us all sorts of little stories about Santa to keep us in the mood. One of my favorites was when she told us her own take on Rudolph, and how he went from the outcast reindeer to one of the most respected animals in Santa’s herd. Given I was always an outcast child myself, this struck a special chord in me.
I stopped believing in Santa around the age of ten. That’s the year I caught my father putting the presents under the tree, and my mother writing Santa’s note. My classmates had been telling me Santa wasn’t real for a while now, so I was prepared – but it was still kind of upsetting. Especially when I thought about Rudolph and realized none of that was real too.
Nowadays. . .well, I don’t know. I didn’t believe in faeries either when I became an adult. Or rifts into alternate universes. (Well, the latter was less “I don’t believe” and more “That’s purely theoretical at this point.”) And both of those turned out to be real. So maybe, somewhere, Santa is real. I hope he is. A figure like that needs to be real somewhere.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Writing as Dr. E. Brown, PhD
Date: 2008-12-25 06:31 pm (UTC)One year I had Marty work out the calculations to make Santa Claus necessary--number of Christian houses visited, miles traveled, calories expended by flying reindeer...he didn't come to the same conclusion I would have, but it was a good exercise.
Anyway, we celebrated Hanukkah when I was growing up. But we didn't believe in Judah Maccabee either--the story of the Maccabees and the miracle of the oil ran ideologically counter to what my father had wanted to move to America and change our name for, which was assimilation, the rejection of old traditions and and old, superstitious ways of thinking. He didn't want me exposed to that sort of thing as something to celebrate, something that made someone a hero.
I don't like smashing idols with hammers. An idol doesn't need to be smashed to be meaningless. It just needs to be proved wrong.
He'd tell me about the Sephirothic qualities instead, the ten qualities through which God manifests...well, we both looked for the highest knowledge we could find, that's one thing I get from him. For my father, it was religion. For me, it's physics.
I don't remember any of them except for Malkuth and Da'at. The beauty of the world, and knowledge of it.
He told me the lights were symbolic of tikkun olam, putting the world back together, recapturing the light that was lost at the beginning of creation. "We're bringing the light back tonight," he'd say, "and when all the candles are lit, the world will be back together again."
The more time happens, the more it rolls on, the more that light is lost. Entropy, the heat-death of the universe--when the universe ends, everything will be dark again. There's no way of slowing entropy, no way of lighting those candles again once they've burned out. The only thing we can do is go back ourselves--walk back, slowly, against the current.
So no, I don't believe in Santa Claus, and I never did--that's for the goyim. I still light the candles when Marty comes over on Christmas Day to show me his presents, and I tell him about as much of tikkun olam as I can remember.
I even let him light the candles. I think he's taking it to heart.
((Saw your entry and couldn't resist. Happy Hogswatch!))
Re: Writing as Dr. E. Brown, PhD
Date: 2008-12-25 06:58 pm (UTC)The hellHowWell. That's a new one on me, I have to admit. My version of our family was Christian. Though more Mother's side than Father's, really. Still, it sounds like you have happy memories of Hannukkah, so Happy Hannukkah to you.
And I'm glad one of us had a decent relationship with his father((Hehe. Happy Hogswatch -- I'm really looking forward to getting that bit of Pratchett!))
no subject
Date: 2008-12-26 12:13 am (UTC)So he's real somewhere. I didn't get to ask about the elves and Rudolph, but I bet they're real too.
Merry Christmas! I hope you're having a great one, Doc!
no subject
Date: 2008-12-26 12:51 am (UTC)Merry Christmas, Metody! I hope you're having a good one too!
no subject
Date: 2008-12-26 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-26 01:02 am (UTC)From the Inkwell. . . .
Date: 2008-12-26 04:59 am (UTC)Re: From the Inkwell. . . .
Date: 2008-12-26 05:00 am (UTC)Inkwell Again
Date: 2008-12-26 05:01 am (UTC)Re: Inkwell Again
Date: 2008-12-26 05:02 am (UTC)Re: Inkwell Again
Date: 2008-12-26 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-26 05:34 am (UTC)Small kids, and kids who really need it. And you know, Santa's suit isn't always red.
Sometimes it's blue.
semper fi
no subject
Date: 2008-12-26 05:40 am (UTC)semper fi