{"id":2452390,"date":"2019-12-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=317945"},"modified":"2019-12-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T07:00:00","slug":"aspen-princess-what-is-the-meaning-behind-santa-claus-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-princess-what-is-the-meaning-behind-santa-claus-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Princess: What is the meaning behind Santa Claus, anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cSanta was my ice skating teacher,\u201d Levi exclaimed, his little voice full of excitement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHoney, I think maybe your ice skating teacher was dressed up as Santa,\u201d I peered at him through the rear view mirror to try to gauge his reaction. \u201cLike how you dress up in a costume for Halloween. Santa doesn\u2019t have time to teach ice skating, I don\u2019t think,\u201d I added, trying to solidify my explanation.<\/p>\n

Yes, Christmas is another event that has been enriched now that I get to experience it through the eyes of my child. But I still find myself in the midst of some kind of existential crisis. What the hell does it all mean, and more importantly, how will all the hype, the materialism and the straight up lies about Santa impact my little boy?<\/p>\n

For a toddler, Levi is pretty damn smart when it comes to being manipulated. Even if my intentions are good, like when I\u2019m trying to discipline him, he manages to see right through it and even turn the tables on me.<\/p>\n

For example, when he misbehaves and I threaten to take his favorite toy away he\u2019ll say, \u201cFine, take it. I don\u2019t want it. Put it away.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is already wary of all the Santa hype. When he sees a toy he wants, and I say, \u201cMaybe you can put it on your Christmas list for Santa.\u201d Or when he refuses to go to bed and I say, \u201cHe knows when you are sleeping. He knows when you\u2019re awake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levi will stomp his foot and say, \u201cI don\u2019t want anything from Santa.\u201d And then, \u201cStop singing, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a part of me that admires this quality in my boy, even if it sucks for me. It\u2019s like trying to train a smart dog; he has a mind of his own and doesn\u2019t just take my word for it. He questions everything and challenges me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we had a hard time explaining why our daughter\u2019s music teacher was dressed up as Mrs. Claus at the Basalt Christmas Tree lighting,\u201d a friend told me the other day.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: I love sharing the wonder and the magic of Santa with my child, especially since I was a Jewish kid whose parents despised the holidays but gave in because it was too much of a losing battle. To this day, I can\u2019t hear a Christmas carol without hearing my mom\u2019s voice in my head, mocking the song.<\/p>\n

When I was 20 and my brother was 13, my parents announced they were done with Christmas. \u201cThey\u2019re just saying that,\u201d I told my brother. \u201cThey just want to surprise us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out, I was wrong. There was no Christmas that year. When I protested, my Dad ran around the house like a crazy person screaming, \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the Jews who killed Jesus, it was a bunch of Puerto Rican guys \u2014 and they just ran that way!\u201d<\/p>\n

I was so traumatized that Christmas was eventually reinstated, but never without a heavy dose of Jewish guilt over Peking duck at a local Chinese restaurant for Christmas dinner. To this day, my mom refers to it as \u201cAlimas\u201d and we exchange gifts while my mother rolls her eyes and my dad watches Rachel Maddow on full blast.<\/p>\n

Now that I\u2019m the parent, I can understand where my own parents were coming from. What is it that we\u2019re celebrating, exactly? What explanation do I give Levi to explain why he is entitled to so many gifts? What is the meaning behind Santa Claus, anyway? What exactly is to be gained from a fat guy in a red suit flying around in a sleigh spreading materialism? Obviously, there is a significant religious meaning behind the holiday itself, but it\u2019s not our religion.<\/p>\n

I can see that my child, with his quickly developing intellect and rebellious streak, is already over the hype. It\u2019s partly our fault for dragging it out so long. Maybe it wasn\u2019t the best idea to ride the Polar Express from Durango to the North Pole to see Santa before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

When Santa boarded the train, Levi was so jacked up I thought his head might explode. Then, in a bizarre turn of events, this particular Santa let us know he was offended by our Grinch pajamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Grinch?\u201d Durango Santa said, doing nothing to hide his disgust.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t have time to explain to the guy that it\u2019s a family joke. My father-in-law calls himself the Grinch and gives everyone Grinch gifts every year \u2014 stupid stuff like hotel soap, rocks and T-shirts purchased from a truck stop. Truth be told, I kind of love these gifts and still have my Nebraska Cornhuskers T-shirt and wear it to bed all the time. At any rate, Levi picked up on the negative vibes and was visibly chastened. Mean Santa!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve thought about trying to institute some kind of tradition like celebrities do, spending the morning in a soup kitchen or volunteering in some capacity for people in need. I have begun to introduce the idea of giving away a toy for every new toy he gets (also a way to manage his burgeoning play room inventory that is quite literally bursting at the seams), but his maturing intellect stops there. \u201cMine!\u201d is the predominant rationale.<\/p>\n

When Levi wanted something from the obscenely conspicuous pile of toys at the entrance to Whole Foods and I suggested he add it to his list for Santa, he looked at me with an expression beyond his years and said, \u201cListen, Mom. You have two choices. You can buy this for me right now and that will make me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a part of me that almost gave in. What was stopping me from just giving him the damned guitar shaped like a strawberry on a random Tuesday?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know who killed Jesus, but I do know Amazon is killing all of us.<\/p>\n

The Princess is going to bed. Email your love to alisonmargo@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSanta was my ice skating teacher,\u201d Levi exclaimed, his little voice full of excitement. \u201cHoney, I think maybe your ice skating teacher was dressed up as Santa,\u201d I peered at him through the rear view mirror to try to gauge his reaction. \u201cLike how you dress up in a costume for Halloween. Santa doesn\u2019t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 01:29:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}