IT’S December, and here in New York, Christmas décor is already seen every where.
I saw a Santa Claus, “Hey Santa!” I said to the sad looking Santa Claus standing near a mall, “You look a little sad, come on give us one of your Ho! Ho! Ho’s!”
“Not up to it!” said Santa.
“What’s with it?” I asked, “Some gift you can’t give a child? A problem with a reindeer’s hoof? Mrs Santa given you a yelling for staring at a pretty helper?”
“Stop it!” said Santa quietly, “I wish it was as simple as that!” “Whoa! Whoa!” I said peering at him closer, “Out with it” “I don’t like what I’m doing.” said Santa a tear trickling down his nose.
“You don’t like those children sitting on your lap, pulling your cotton beard? You don’t like their young mothers looking at you adoringly, wondering why their husbands never make good Santas?” “No I don’t,” said Santa, “I don’t like the fact I am impersonating the real meaning of Christmas!” “You are Christmas!” I said anxiously.
“No,” said Santa, “I am not, and yet as I see the world celebrating me, putting me on a sled, with reindeer pulling me all over, showing me scrambling down chimneys, having me sit outside shops and talking to kids I realize how easily I switched roles with the real person Christmas is all about!”
“Who’s that?” I asked. “See you’ve forgotten!” said Santa, shooing off a perky kid trying to scramble onto his lap.
“Christmas is not about Santa, it’s about a Baby born in a manger! Have you forgotten?” “Maybe, “I said quietly, “But you Santas have done a good job in making us all forget!”
“Oh what scoundrels we are!” said Santa and suddenly from all around I heard the sound of a thousand Santas weeping, “We have taken the place of the manger Baby!” “Christmas is about Jesus born in a manger!” said Santa.
“About the Prince of Peace!” “Whom God sent down to save the world!” “And instead of remembering Him, how cleverly we have taken His place!” shouted a million Santa voices. “Maybe next year you could disappear during Christmas!”
I suggested helpfully. “We can’t!” said Santa and across the earth was the sound from thousands of red faced, pot bellied Santa Clauses weeping, “We can’t because it’s you who have lifted us high, and it’s only you who can bring us down!”
A tear crept down my cheek as I turned away from the weeping Santas and heard all around, silly songs like, “Jingle Bells!” which had nothing to do with the birth of the Prince of Peace.
And then I heard carols, “Away in a Manger!” sang a choir, and in my mind I saw the Christ child and knew no one would be able to take away the real meaning of Christmas, because He reigns not in shopping malls but in the hearts of His people..!
