The Truth About Santa Claus
By: White Feather
Tags: Humor, Spirituality, Short Story, Christmas, Fiction

One of the cruelest things we humans do to young children is to tell them that Santa Claus is not real. By inflicting this ‘adult truth’ on them we are destroying their natural ability to manifest as well as their innate ability to hope. We are domesticating them into the prevailing societal gestalt of lack and hopelessness.

But those young wee ones who have not yet had their belief in Santa Claus beaten out of them have a natural knowingness without doubt that Santa Claus is real. To them, Santa makes perfect sense.

Little Kathy wanted a bicycle more than anything in the world. She prayed for it and wrote a letter to Santa asking for it. Every day she would close her eyes and picture in her mind the bike she wanted. It would be blue because that was her favorite color. It would have streamers coming out of the handlebars and a wicker basket attached in front of the handlebars in which she could put her favorite teddy bear so that she could take him for rides. It had training wheels so that she would not fall and get hurt. And it was very, very shiny.

With her eyes still closed, Little Kathy felt what it would be like to ride that new bicycle. She could feel her legs pumping the pedals as she gripped tightly the handlebars. She could feel the wind blowing through that part of her long hair that was below her shiny blue bicycle helmet. She could feel the thrill of the motion, the speed, and the freedom. Several times a day she would close her eyes and feel the profound joy of riding the new bike that she was sure to get for Christmas.

Lo and behold, on Christmas morning there was a shiny new bike parked next to the Christmas tree. Little Kathy was happier than she had ever been in her short life. She was exploding with joy and gratitude. Without bothering to open any of her other presents she insisted on immediately going outside and riding her new bike. Still in her pajamas, she rode her bike back and forth on the sidewalk of her block. She kept riding until her Mommy and Daddy pleaded with her to come back inside.

There was, however, one small glitch involving her new bike. It was pink, not blue! (Santa Claus, after all, is a man and a man apparently who was conditioned by the prevailing societal gestalt of assigning certain colors to certain genders.) But this one small glitch was easily overlooked by Little Kathy. She was just too happy to let it matter.

From that day forward she rode her bike every day, every chance she got. Her teddy bear was the luckiest teddy bear in the whole world and Little Kathy was the happiest girl in the whole world. It was not long before her Daddy took off the training wheels.

It was the following year that she overheard her Mommy and Daddy talking. They were talking about how Little Kathy was getting too old to still believe in Santa Claus. They would soon have to break the news to her that Santa was not real.

Santa not real?! Little Kathy was devastated. She fell into a state of confusion, hopelessness, and depression. If Santa was not real then what is?

That year she never bothered to write a letter to Santa and she never even bothered to wish for anything. For Christmas that year all she got was clothes.

Thirty years later Kathy was married and pregnant. She and her husband could barely make ends meet. They were poor and what made matters worse is that her old jalopy of a car was always in the shop constantly running up repair bills. She desperately wanted a new car.

Then a friend of Kathy’s gave her a self-help philosophy book written by some new age know-it-all guru. After reading the book she decided to start believing in Santa Claus again.

Not only did she write and mail a letter to Santa at the North Pole but every day she would close her eyes and meditate. In her mind she would see her new car. It would be brand new and shiny. It would be a hybrid so that she could save on gas. It would come with a child’s safety seat. And, most importantly, it would be blue!

While seeing the car in her mind she would feel what it would be like driving it. She felt the joy of driving the car out in the country with her windows down and wind pouring into the car and through her long hair. She felt the joy and freedom of driving a car that she could depend on. She focused on how having the new car would make her feel.

Lo and behold, on Christmas morning she looked outside and sitting in her driveway was a brand new shiny hybrid car. Although it had a huge pink bow taped to the hood, the car was blue! Not since she got her first bike so long ago had she felt such intense pure joy and elation. The baby in her belly certainly felt her joy.

That afternoon Kathy went for a drive in the country in her new car. (Just for fun.) She was so happy that she decided to make a promise to the Universe. She promised the Universe and herself that she would never, ever, ever tell her forthcoming child that Santa Claus is not real.

That baby would be the luckiest and happiest baby in the whole world.