He Bridged the Gap Between God and Man
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On our home page, an article called Silence Is Golden, about my experience with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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Santa and Christmas
By Donna Kupferschmidt
December 21, 2006
Being the youngest of 11, I was blessed to have siblings who passed on information to me as they received it. I learned the truth behind Santa in this manner at the ripe old age of 6, with the stern warning not to share with my classmates. I intended to keep this secret, to one day sagely smile and nod with the wisdom age can only bring when my classmates finally learned the truth and shared that truth with me. But…I was only 6! And….kids are cruel….
After Christmas break in first grade, my 2 friends, Carol and Trudy gleefully shared stories about what they’d gotten for Christmas. Silently, I stood by. Then they turned on me, “What did you get for Christmas, Donna?” Thoughts about lying raced through my head, but I instead opted for the truth and told them of the clothes Mom spent hours sewing and knitting and crocheting for me (She did this for ALL of us! Can you imagine the hours this took, for 11 of us?!?!?).
“Well, you must have been naughty. Santa only gives to those who are good. You obviously were not!” Carol sneered, teeth dripping with my fresh blood, her claws fully extended to extract more. Trudy nodded in smug agreement.
My mind raced, tears closing in. Just in the knick of time, my anger saved me and I blurted, “That’s not true! I was not naughty! You only got so much because your parents can afford more! T H E R E I S N O S A N T A ! ! ! !” I let the last sentence fall upon heavy silence and watched in horror as their eyes opened wide and their mouths opened and shut, wordless.
Then, “Mrs. Reimert, Donna said there is no Santa,” they bawled in unison.
Not wanting mass chaos and angry parents calling from the fallout, Mrs. Reimert did not skip a beat. She coldly looked me right in the eye and with quiet silk oozed, “Only naughty children say such lies. We know this isn’t true, children, don’t we?”
As all 25 pair of eyes glared at me, I could not speak. Ashamed my anger broke the vow of silence, my face reddened. But at the same time, I wondered how Mrs. Reimert could lie to the entire class of first graders….Nothing made sense all of a sudden. To add to the injury, Mrs. Reimert wanted me to apologize to my classmates for lying to them. I could not and would not, so she sat me in the corner. I don’t remember how long I had to sit in the corner, but I do remember the anger and the misery of betrayal I felt. I was sure, at any moment, when the rest of the class was otherwise occupied, Mrs. Reimert would break away and explain why she betrayed me like that. But she didn’t. As time crawled and she didn’t explain, I began to doubt the integrity of what my siblings had shared with me. Were we really bad people? Was there really a Santa so cruel that would punish us for being naughty?
That experience taught me at a very young age how cruelly capitalistic Christmas had become with the myth of Santa Claus. Santa separates the “haves” from the “have nots.” Santa emphasizes things over substance. Santa distorts the true meaning of Christmas.
Giving “things” is not at all what Christmas is all about. Christmas is all about the greatest gift mankind has ever received and that is the gift of unconditional love. God loved us so much that He gave His only Son. God loved us so much that He left His throne to humbly be born in a manger, live among us, suffer and die for us to defeat death and sin for us. Christmas is about love and sacrifice, not about material things. Christmas is not about whoever gets the most gifts wins. Christmas is about the gift nobody ever has, nor will ever earn: the gift of salvation.
