I’m an atheist because of Santa Clause.
You’re shaking your head? Then read no further because this article will not deal with evolution or Big Bangs. Nothing intellectual to be found here today. Just a naked reality.
Being born a Jew it was an absolute curse to live through Christmas as a kid. I would listen to the other kids down the road telling me about Santa that comes through the chimney and he brings gifts he made in the North Pole. They said you write Santa a letter and he brings you whatever your heart desires.
I would go back home and not being able to write yet, ask my mother to write to Santa for me. She would then explain that there is no such thing as Santa but I wouldn’t believe her because the signs of him were up in every shop. Streets would be lit up in his honour with twinkling lights showing him and the reindeer.
Sure we have Hanukkah and also get gifts, but Hanukkah will never have the magic of Christmas, whatever Christmas really stands for. To this day I feel deprived because that magic part of childhood was never mine to be had.
In my childhood head the Christians had Santa and were very lucky. The god I have to worship is an angry old man full of curses and brings hardship upon people. Who in their right mind would want to be associated with such a cruel entity?
So as a kid already I had to make the choice if I would follow some mystical deity or find the truth and in searching for the truth, find a way forward in a world plagued by many religions.
If your religion starts scaring you, you then obviously start looking for alternatives, which leads to you dissecting religion and finding a viable alternative for something that goes against your own grain. It is in the end nothing other than paganism.
If Santa was a myth, then what else were grown-up people lying about? To this day neither Christian nor Jew has ever given me a plausible answer on the existence of a god. Listening to Christians I sometimes believe all 7000 branches of Christianity have created their own god. Not to mention the whole Christ saga and the resultant Catholics worshipping a virgin that gave birth to a man child.
I wanted the truth about god but never found it.
The best thing I did however was allow my own kids to live the Santa fantasy. There was no way that I was going to explain to toddlers all of this rubbish about there being no Santa. We decorate a tree for them and do the whole Santa cookie and milk thing and it is magic watching them live this fantasy. Watching their faces when I tell them the reindeer flew down into the garden and Santa had to sneak past the dogs to get their gifts under the tree, is priceless.
Last Christmas I left one cookie in the plate unintentionally and when I wanted to eat it when they checked if Santa had eaten his snacks, all hell broke loose! The plate was grabbed from me and their mother was told to go hide Santa’s cookies from me!
Long live Santa and the joy he brings kids. There will be enough time for them to learn the truth about more than just Santa……
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