The Parable of Santa Claus

February 3, 2011


Like most kids, there was a phase in my childhood when I did believe in Santa Claus. I clearly remember one Christmas morning when I was staying at my cousin's and I woke up to discover that the sock I hung on the wall the night before was already filled with an assortment of hard candies, gum, and chocolate bars. It was a very short-lived belief though, since even at that young age, I already knew that the idea of a Santa with all his baggy red winter clothes, reindeer and all, sneaking in at night in a house with no chimneys much less snow was plain ludicrous.

I suppose that when other kids grew up and were told that Santa never existed at all, a big magical chunk of Christmas was taken away from them. Imagine all those times trying to be good. All those gift requests to Santa, some of them even answered... All of these wonderful and exciting things... What every kid was looking forward to every Christmas... The mystery which surrounds the second most important date aside from their birthday... All lies?

Santa gave them hope. Santa gave them magic. Santa made them be good. Santa made them smile. At the end of a particularly difficult day in school, they held on to the hope that maybe they've been good enough that Santa might finally give them what they really want for Christmas. Santa was goodness incarnate! They wouldn't know what to do without Santa to believe in. They believe they wouldn't even survive those tough December days without holding on to Santa at all. And it must have been a terrible job for parents to finally divulge that secret that all along, they were the ones pretending to be Santa Claus. That all along, they were simply fooling their children.

And yet the children must eventually grow up and use their heads. They must be clearheaded enough to be able to sift fact from fiction. And believing in something as illogical as Santa will not help them in that aspect of their lives at all. Why, these children will be the laughingstock of their peers if they insist on claiming that Santa Claus is real.

***

Now imagine a completely isolated village (let's call it Christmas Village) where Santa is believed to be real. Even the grownups believe he is real, and has proceeded to worshipping him. They feel his presence in their town, in themselves, everywhere. Believing in Santa gives their lives more meaning. It makes them feel more important. It agrees with what they want to feel. They teach their children about Santa even before their children are fully able to understand everything that belief will make of them in the future. They teach their children that questioning the existence of Santa himself is bad and that one should only obey, obey, and obey. Hundreds of generations have passed and despite having a bloody history of intolerance to other beliefs (which the grownups seldom mention to the kids, if at all), the belief in Santa Claus has flourished.

One day an outsider arrives at Christmas Village, having no previous knowledge whatsoever of Santa Claus. Immediately the elders inform the newcomer that he owes a debt to Santa by default. Now the visitor is surprised by this, since to his fair judgment, he had been living his life normally and owes nothing to anyone. The elders were seriously worried about the newcomer's immensely serious Santa debt, and offers a Santa product to save him from this. He was informed that only Santa believers have the Santa product, and that if he rejects this, he will be forever condemned in the dreaded Chimney when he dies. Naturally, the outsider rejects all these since "Chimney" and "life after death" are but self-serving concepts (the stick, and the honey) developed by Santa's believers in order to promote their doctrine.

There came upon a time in Christmas Village when a curious, knowledge-seeking boy found inconsistencies in Santa's List, the book everyone in the village believes to be absolutely true. He began to read other books and used his own logic and reasoning to come to the conclusion that Santa isn't real at all. He also found out that there were others who independently reached the same conclusions he did. He tried to bring this to the villagers' attention, risking the ire of everyone in Christmas Village. His friends admonished him for disturbing the peace. Even those who agree with him about all these inconsistencies in the List do not want to commit anything. Meanwhile, the boy's friends are continuously devoting all their lives to Santa Claus. Some of them were unaware of these glaring falsehoods in what they blindly believe in. Some heard him, knew that he was making sense, but kept their minds from thinking too much about it since they were afraid of the Chimney. They knew they were trapped, and instead of trying to get out, they intended to stay trapped rather than lose faith in Santa Claus, no matter how well the boy's arguments are proving them to be less valid than how they were before. Santa Claus is everything, the List says. All others are wrong. We are the only ones who are right. Do not listen! Do not use reason and logical thinking! Obey, obey, obey!

Now the boy thought whether it was worth it to pursue his cause. He was afraid how Santa believers were becoming illogical, even his closest friends, when confronted by the List's most basic failings. They were being fanatical about Santa, and were becoming increasingly irrational. He commended how his friends were not easily swayed from their belief, but he detested how they would be so selective in their own unique interpretations of the List. He would point out the errors and they would claim he was interpreting them wrong. They would point out the right ones and when he tried to tell them that maybe they're the ones interpreting it wrong this time, they would stopper their ears and stayed blind to their folly.

The boy looked them in the eyes and his friends' eyes seemed to say:

"I am trapped. I cannot go back. I cannot accept that I've been wrong all along. You're too prideful!"

"This works for me and I don't care if it doesn't for others. I'm safe from the Chimney and I don't care whether you're not. Selfish!"

"I won't listen. Period. Blind idiot!"

"Who cares about the truth? What matters is that I'm happy with it and it gives me what I need. You care too much for your own comforts!"

"I know Santa Claus does not really exist but if I don't show to others that I adore him, they will think I'm evil. Vanity is all you know, you know!"

And still the boy worked for the truth, believing that if Santa really exists and is really good then Santa's believers would actually encourage him to discover the truth.

Right?

TO BE CONTINUED