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I sat up wanting to check again. I left the comfort of my warm, soft bed and headed down stairs toward the Christmas Tree. Although I was inside I could still feel the cold of December nipping at my nose. The tree was the very definition of pulchritude; of course nothing was under the deceiving tree. What was I expecting? In class everyone is telling me that he isn't real. That it's just my parents setting out presents wrapped with bows. I concur with a compelling argument about the existence of Santa, but lately there has been a looming sense that maybe he is just a trick for parent to use for misbehaving children. I am starting to believe that it would be easier to give in and join them in the taunting of other children who believe, but
After the previous spirit disappeared, Scrooge looks up to find the final spirit, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The phantom remains silent and simply takes Scrooge toward the city, where they eavesdrop on a few conversations between people. One of them was between two men who were talking about how someone had recently died. They retorted about how nobody liked the man and, consequently, they expected nobody to show up to the funeral. The twain continued to another pair of businessmen who had also heard the news that someone had died, but did not care. Scrooge, oblivious as to who they were talking about, tries to ask the spirit some questions, in which the spirit doesn’t respond. The phantom just drags Scrooge to a nearly abandoned
Few people can confidently say why the United States celebrates Christmas on December 25. And I imagine even fewer people know why we give gifts, or why we pucker up when we find ourselves under some mistletoe. The answers to these questions are under a thick layer of rich human and mythological history. For me, the majority of these discoveries were absolutely shocking—Christ was never in Christmas.
Christmas has consumed itself. At its conception, it was a fine idea, and I imagine that at one point its execution worked very much as it was intended to. These days, however, its meaning has been perverted; its true purpose ignored and replaced with a purpose imagined by those who merely go through the motions, without actually knowing why they do so.
In Jay Mock’s blog “Is Santa Claus a Conspiracy?” he contemplates whether Santa Claus has an evil purpose. Mock goes through what happens every year during Christmas time now and how “good feelings are directly connected to consumerism” (Mock p3), how we lie to support the conspiracy (Mock p5) and the different options a child may go through when trying to decide whether Santa Claus is real or not (Mock p7-15).
When Sir Bob of Schneizereindeer returns from Zimbabwe, his knights organizes a meeting to tell Sir Bob some terrible news. His wife, Queen Phaedra, has been taken away by a dragon and locked up in its castle.
Not only children but also adults like Santa. When I was a child, I like Santa because he gave me a gift whether he is real or not. After I grew up, I know that Santa is unreal but Santa reminds me of my childhood. Many of the children think Santa is real person so that their parents try hard not to destroy their innocence. So, on Christmas, parents buy gifts for their children and dress themselves up as a Santa.
I stepped out of the chilly November air and into the warmth of my home. The first snowfall of the year had hit early in the morning, and the soft, powdery snow provided entertainment for hours. As I laid my furry mittens and warm hat on the bench to dry, I was immediately greeted with the rich scent of sweet apple pie, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, and the twenty-pound turkey my mother was preparing for our Thanksgiving feast.
Christmas is a special time of year that deserves to be remembered for its true meaning. Every year, Christmas becomes more and more commercialized and society forgets the origin of Christmas. It was not started with cookies, toys, and a fat man that delivers them, but instead it started with a humble inn where our Savior was born. The definition of Christmas is “a holiday on December 25 celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.” Nowhere in that definition does it say anything about the outrageous pressure society has set on consumers to buy, buy, buy during the Christmas season. Christmas is about presence not presents.
So you don’t believe in Santa Claus. It’s understandable. We find ourselves in an age of pure skepticism. We question everything. Science has taken hold of our lives, providing answers for all questions and dismissing anything that cannot be explained as either myth or fiction. So it’s quite understandable why you don’t believe, with no physical proof of his existence. It’s indeed understandable to lose sight of Father Christmas with the transformation of this holiday into one that, as of late, is used commercially as a lucrative crutch solely to make profit. It’s understandable to abandon Santa Claus after hearing countless people deny his very physical or even spiritual existence. After all, one tends to believe something if it is repeatedly reported as true. But, let me tell you something, something that may lead you to quite a spectacular, fulfilling life.
People have celebrated a mid-winter festival since pre-historic times. They marked the beginning of longer hours of daylight with fires and ritual offerings. The Roman festival of Saturnalia -- a time for feasting and gambling -- lasted for weeks in December. Germanic tribes of Northern Europe also celebrated mid-winter with feasting, drinking and religious rituals.
In "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a transformation as a result of his encounters with three ghosts and becomes a kind, happy, and generous man. His greedy, cruel, and grumpy demeanor is replaced seemingly overnight, but he doesn’t just wake up and decide to be nice. It takes three Spirits to change his outlook on life - The Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Future. The Ghost of Christmas Past makes Scrooge begin to regret his selfishness, and the Ghost of Christmas Present begins to teach him about others. This second Ghost helps to make him realize that money doesn't buy happiness. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, however, teaches the most profound lesson of all: unless he changes, no one will care if Scrooge dies. Because of the Ghosts, by Christmas morning Ebenezer Scrooge is a completely different person from the man who went to bed on Christmas Eve.
We HAVE to make those kids presents! Oh well, I guess we can’t do anything else about it.” Santa replied with deep sorrow in his voice. He boarded the sleigh and called his reindeer by their names. “On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer on Vixen! On Comet, on Cupid, on Donner, on Blitzen! And ON RUDOLPH!” he called as the sleigh began to shoot up into the air. Santa took a last look down on the town in the North Pole. He smiled sadly to himself as he remembered how the elves had endured so much that he had thrown at them, and he eventually drove them away. He was a bad Santa Claus. As the night went on, Santa found himself in a bit of a situation. He had read the tags on the presents and delivered them to the address, but he found that the addresses had been the wrong ones! He didn’t know what present went to who any more! This was a disaster! When he was in the last house hours later, he heard a BANG In the kitchen of the house. Santa rushed to the kitchen, and saw hundreds of pointy elf hats all crammed in one room. Santa gasped and got teary-eyed at the sight of his old
As we prepare for this newsletter, the world outside is busy with Christmas season. People are excited with the shopping for gifts, and then carefully put them under the Christmas tree. Those are the items that children (and even adults) have been waiting for throughout the year. The wife eagerly strolls in shopping malls, trying to equally buy presents for everyone in the family. The husband, in addition to decoration of Christmas tree, hangs up the Christmas lights outdoors. When night falls, lights are up, creating an atmosphere of peace reflecting down to the front yard with full of white snow. Inside the house, after dinner, the whole family sits around the fireplace, enjoys the moment when each light glitters above the wrapped gifts.
Christmastime was always a magical time of year for me. The beautifully decorated shopping malls, with toys everywhere you looked, always fascinated me. And the houses, with the way their lights would glow upon the glistening snow at night, always seemed to calm me. But decorating the Christmas tree and falling asleep underneath the warm glow of the lights, in awe that Santa Claus would soon be there, was the best part of it all. As a child, these things enchanted me. Sure, the presents were great, but the excitement and mystery of Christmas; I loved most of all. Believing…that’s what it was all about. Believing there really was a Santa and waking up Christmas morning, realizing he’d come, as my sleepy eyes focused on all the fancily wrapped presents before me.
It appeared to be the start of a special Christmas, for my brother was coming to visit. I was even more excited than usual for a nine-year-old boy at this time of year. I wondered what new presents would be under the tree? In the past, Tom always got me such neat stuff. I could hardly wait to start shaking the gifts and guessing.