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Neither Santa Nor The Christmas Birthday Baby Is White
Dangerous mythology teaches something to our kids and it’s not as generous or harmless as you might think
Crushing Magic
When I was a child, I never got the “magic” of Christmas because my sister, three years older than I was, smashed it. She, a snotty, bossy, six-year old, Karen, know -it- all, explained that “Santa Claus is not real.
“ It’s all mom and dad.”
As a toddler, I scanned the skies for reindeer. I was waiting sleeplessly in our shared room at the tender age of three and a half. Still, at this disturbing revelation, I remember being more intrigued than disappointed.
If fact, if I was disappointed, I didn’t show it or let on. Looking back, especially as a clinical psychologist, it is clear that I was in classical denial.
I didn’t want the two awful truths to be revealed: Number one: There is no Santa Claus. Number two: All adults are liars.
For years, I acted around my parents as though what they said was gospel. Like a disgruntled Trumpeteer, my actions screamed: “Of course we have a hero and he will shower us all with everything we need to fix the world.”