Santa’s bags

My dear Billy, It is that time of the year again when children of all climes and from all walks of life expect Santa Claus to come visiting exactly at midnight on Thursday on a beautiful sledge laden with their favourite playthings, and drawn by a pack of tireless reindeers. Has it ever occurred to you to visualize yourself as dear old Santa making the rounds on Christmas day, going down and up chimneys, delivering their toys and other gifts to the kids of the universe? Kids will be kids, and even if they somehow suspect that the old man with the white crop of abundant beard, all clad in flaming red, does not really exist, they still like to shroud him in mystery and enjoy the awe and aura around him. Santa Claus, or Father Christmas as he is more endearingly known, is the one character that is universally loved by children, and who transcends boundaries and beliefs. Although the occasion is associated with the birth of Christ at midnight bridging the 24th and 25th December, the traditions of Santa Claus date further back. With the passage of time however, except for Christians around the world, Christmas is observed independently of Christ and the Nativity. It is a moment of rejoicing and especially an occasion for parents to reward their children, according to whether they have been good and obedient during the preceding year, or have been otherwise. Even among many Christians the wings of spirituality and religion have been clipped from the flight of Christmas to give way to general revelry. When you see the purchases, the parties, the general merrymaking, you wonder why Christ is still hanging on the cross, my dear Billy. Jesus came down to earth with a sacred mission. Traders have now hijacked that mission and are using him to increase their sales on the occasion of his anniversary. Jesus had come to save mankind; he is now being made to serve the business class. How many more times will Christ have to say “Excuse them my Father, for they know not what they are doing?” In any case, Christmas comes with its message of universal love and hope for mankind. Maybe this is what people are celebrating with the complicity of shopkeepers and street-hawkers who are devising all sorts of tricks and gimmicks to get away with their victims’ hard-earned cash. When I was a young boy, I had often wished I was Father Christmas, my dear Billy. The idea of possessing all those toys was enticing indeed. I must tell you that in those days, Santa was only carrying toys for little boys and girls. Today he is being made to carry anything from wide-screen television sets to computers, from furniture to automobiles to deposit in the shoes of grown-ups or under their pillows! I wanted to become Father Christmas, not only so that I might have such a great variety of toys to play with, but I also noticed that many of my friends in the neighborhood had been forgotten by the old man who had simply not called at their places. I just couldn’t understand why Santa Claus had neglected them, and wished I was the bearded man with the bagful of toys so that I might see to it that every single little child got at least one toy. Today, as age has done its ungrateful job, and I have become an old man despite myself and without wanting to, I sometimes still entertain my childhood wish of playing Father Christmas. I am not exactly burdened with the desire of bestowing a toy upon each child any longer, although I could still be doing that, considering the number of kids who not only go without toys on Christmas, but also without food. I am seized with the whim of becoming Santa Claus for other reasons too, so that I could administer particularly to the adults of the world. I would carry in my big bags on my sledge drawn by a pack of reindeers, a particular potion that would eliminate from the hearts of men and women all habitations of greed, envy, hatred, callousness, false pride, evil, villainy, wickedness, cruelty, corruption and the other ills. I would also take along with me profuse quantities of an elixir that would replace these elements by a good dose of love, compassion, kindness, affection, benevolence, charity, goodness, understanding, honesty and above all humanity, so that human beings could learn how to become human gradually. I would also have a special thought and gift for the great leaders of the world. I would grant them enough intelligence and willpower to stop the universal carnage in which they are indulging daily, to prevent the world from being shattered to pieces and falling apart, to put a final end to war, violence, destruction, in the name of religion. Father Christmas has been allowed to fool around for far too long, my dear Billy. Someone else should take up the role now and seriously get down to work to save mankind. One of the priorities of the new Santa would to be concoct such a gift for mankind so that all the religions of the world could unite in order to check the downward slide in values, so that a new and better world might emerge. Is that a very tall order, my dear Billy?