Why Does Santa hate poor kids? (Seven shopping days to Christmas )
by Bruce Webb
I posted the below last Christmas Eve. Which was too late to actually discuss the issue. People decry the commercialization of Christmas, which is fair enough. And on econoblogs we discuss income inequality a lot, plus we wonder why working class people simply accept the logic of “no poor person ever gave me a job”. Well I suggest the answer may be as simple as teaching poor kids that Santa hates them and the Tooth Fairy thinks they are second class citizens. Those early lessons stick. More downer below the fold. But there is a point here.
This is in response to some comments on Kos’s Track Santa post (about NORAD ‘tracking’ Santa and putting it up on their website).
Well, the guy dresses in all red (24+ / 0-)
and gives away the products of his factory’s labor to those depending on their needs.Of course NORAD was going to track him. I’m surprised they didn’t lob the occasional Nike missile at him back in the day.
Effin’ Commie.
by Robobagpiper on Wed Dec 24, 2008 at 08:45:02 AM PST
[ Reply to This |Recommend ]
Spreadin’ the wealth around. (14+ / 0-)
Why does Santa hate the real America?
DEPENDING ON THEIR NEEDS? Not in this country. In my experience children in lower-income households figure out the Santa thing somewhat earlier than kids from more affluent families. Otherwise they would go crazy asking the question that titles this diary.
Because when you get back to school after Christmas vacation the first question you ask is “What did Santa bring you?” And the rich kids, the ones that already have everything anyway are always the ones who get the most and the coolest stuff. I don’t know that anyone is trying to deliver this message conciously or even that kids consciously understand it. But it serves to socialize class differences in a Social Darwinist kind of way. After all if God didn’t want rich people to be rich why are they rich? Obviously they must deserve it because of their higher level of education and skill or something and that extends to their children. Now I think even the youngest poor kid understands that the rich kid gets better birthday presents, you have to be pretty dim not to understand the difference between your parents struggling to make rent and pay bills and the kid who lives in the big house on the hill. But why the hell does Santa have to pile on?
Robobagpipers comment was funny but in reality is painfully off the mark. Far from being a socialist devoted to the concept of ‘From each according to his ability, to each depending on their needs’ instead Santa ends up as the patron saint of Income Inequality.
My family was kind of lower middle-class but we always had nice Christmas’s. Lots of good food and nice gift exchanges on Christmas Eve plus some bonus presents from Santa on Christmas morning. Whereupon we got in the car and visited my Grandmother who lived sixty miles away with her daughters and their children plus an infant great-grandson in pretty dire poverty. I learned pretty early on not to discuss what Santa brought me with my cousin Joe because Santa didn’t bring him jack.
I am not suggesting ruining Christmas and the belief in Santa for the really small kids. But you need to think about the message you are sending after your kid reaches school age, particularly if you live in a town or city with a fairly wide range of income inequality. Because whether your kid comes home and asks ‘Why does Santa like me and hate Billy? Was he naughty?’ or worse ‘Why does Santa like Billy and hate me? Was I naughty?’ you might be left stammering. At least if you believe in social and economic justice the other 364 days a year.
___________________________________________________
2009 Update. Or maybe the other 362 days a year. Because the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny discriminate on the same basis. But I suggest it is the pretty lame first grader that really believes in either. But Santa is different, where the Tooth Fairy works on the same tariff and the Easter Bunny can be counted on delivering the same Easter Basket year in and year out, who knows, Santa might come through with that pony. If you have been good.
This is not to blame Santa for this sense of entitlement and exceptionalism by the wealthy, instead that is perhaps better explained by a toxic mix of Calvinism, Capitalism and a generous dollop of Social Darwinism. But what better way to teach some future Wall Street Master of the Universe that by God he DESERVES that multi-million dollar bonus even if his firm had to be bailed out by the government than catching him when he is four or five years old. After all if Santa hadn’t meant him to be rich where did that big pile of presents come from? While poor kids have to be bailed out by the Marines’ Toys for Tots and the Salvation Army. Serves them right for being naughty losers.
I get the point, but I think that my kids got the message the other 364 days a year and the few years we told them about “Father Christmas” it did little but set up some cognitive dissonance. At the end of the day they both grew up to realize that they would not inherit wealth, that they had no special talents that would allow them to achieve great wealth and that they were unlikely to be lucky enough to have great wealth handed to them. They also learned that they were way smarter than average and that if they worked very hard and their parents got them a big dose of education past high school, they were unlikely to be poor and that is how it has turned out. Of course, they did not learn that despite all the hard work, brains and education they could end up unemployed without health insurance because of the greed and foolishness of Wall Street types and the dysfunctional government in this country, but their parents did not realize that was a possibility when my children were small.
One thing I suspect you may have overlooked is that kids from upper and upper middle families don’t socialize much with kids from lower middle and lower class families so there isn’t all that much comparing going on. Kids know some families are richer than others, but social distance in the US tends to buffer the contrasts. Poor kids experience their poverty today more via what they see on TV probably than via actual personal interactions. Just a thought.
i never really cared that much about ‘stuff’. i have no idea if this is because of how i was brought up or what. for my own sake, i hope it’s genetic so my kid doesn’t care either. i’d pay if someone could give me a better brain though.
MM,
Not sure where you live but at my kids school we have the full gamut in the wealth category. My daughter has friends whose families get food from the food bank and others who right 5 figure checks to bankroll the food bank. Becuase we have school uniforms (public school) there is little ‘fashion’ competition there. Heck its hard to pick out your kid from a mass of 300 third graders dressed exactly the same (my youngest son – all wearing kaki shorts and blue shirts.) The social differences show up most heavily at the High School level when cars start showing up. Then you see the full spread of social-economic wealth. The wealthy kids get new $30K cars on their 16th. The poorest still take the bus (or bum rides) and you have the full spread in between. (And yes the jocks with the new hot car and cash do well with the girls – not much a change from my youth 30 years ago in another state). Probably helps to have the best public school in the metro-plex. We expect to have over 15 National Merit Schalors this year. Won’t break our record of 28 unfortuanatey.
All my kids don’t seem to care what someone’s family makes and have friends across the spectrum – probably becuase my wife and I don’t. I have let my kids sleep over at 900 sq ft apartments and 12,000 sq ft mansions. And their kids have been over at my house.Its all about the people in the buildings and their character – not the people themselves. And if you ever think you need a stock-broker more than your plumber – well you’ve never had your toilet back up into your shower (yea gross!)….
And I live in the big red state of Texas in (I beleive) the only urban county in the state to go for McCain.
But Bruce nothing you do is going to solve that problem – not unless you want to makes us all poor. I bet Santa was pretty even over in East Germany in the day or North Korea today….
I will second you negativety about the crass-commercialazation of Christmas.
And lastly I would like to heavily endorse the Marines Toys for Tots programs. Its great and the toys really do make it to the kids!!!
Santa REALLY hates Islamic kids…(that was a joke for the humor challenged)
Test – My last comment got eaten…
True in Manhattan. Not true at all in a medium size city or town. Nor does the argument change much even if it is just a case of kids watching richer kids on TV,
Well it is not all about materialism as such. More like why Santa likes that rich kid so much that he gets a nice new warm jacket from North Face AND a bike AND an iTouch and you get a windbreaker from Big-5. It is the kind of socialization that leads to people being born on third base and thinking they hit a triple. And other kids envying them for being such a great athlete.
Nope, just JS-Kit doing its thing. When I first clicked in blogger was reporting five comments, while JS-Kit was only displaying three. There are weird caching issues going on.
I know Dan is tearing his hair out because page behavior it not just controlled by the template but also by stuff exterior to it at both Blogger and JS-Kit. On my comment displayed right away while yours, although with an earlier time stamp, only showed up this time around.
I remember growing up getting a Christmas tree, decorating it, and then opening up presents on Christmas morning. I remember having a Christmas eve dinner with immediate family and then visiting relatives on christmas morning. I don’t know this Christmas the Bruce alludes to where you worry about what some other kid got or look at them with Envy. Envy seems to be a quality that some will people had more of so they could exploit politically.
I remember growing up getting a Christmas tree, decorating it, and then opening up presents on Christmas morning. I remember having a Christmas eve dinner with immediate family and then visiting relatives on Christmas morning. I don’t know this Christmas the Bruce alludes to where you worry about what some other kid got or look at them with Envy. Envy seems to be a quality that some wish people had more of so they could exploit politically.
Bruce
and Buff
I am glad the commenters are taking this seriously, otherwise I’d worry about me.
First, disclaimer: “we” were lower middle class whatever that means. no car, but it was a few years before you were.
i never noticed that other kids “had more” than I did. even in high school i never noticed that the guys with cars got the girls. not the girls i was interested in. didn’t like the guys with cars much so it never occured to me to envy them.
and that, i think, is where Bruce misses a point. Envy is a sin… an error that makes you feel sick… whether you are poor or rich.
but it was no virtue on my part that led me to escape envy. i just never noticed.
i will say that in spite of being poor, Santa was very good to us. That may have had something to do with the fact the my mother cared more about her kids than about keeping up with the Joneses.
Also, back in those days “lower middle class” did not mean “dirt poor.”
i never really cared that much about ‘stuff’. i have no idea if this is because of how i was brought up or what.
I think this means you’re normal.
btw
i made the connection at a fairly early age between Santa being good and my mother having to work. It had the effect of making me hate material possessions. Not entirely, but certainly not interested in, and more than a little uncomfortable with, more than i really need.
and because i realize that in our culture… or the culture of past generations… this could sound like i am bragging about something. i am not. i didn’t do anything to learn this. it didn’t cost me any effort. but it seems to work just the way they always said it would.
Bruce – Thanks for the explanation.
And though off-topic I would like to give another well deserved round of applause to Rdan for all the hard work he’s doing on this blogs. Three cheers!!
Well I am not so much worried about older kids, more like kindergartners and first graders who are maybe being exposed to social stratification for the first time. It is tough enough to find out that not everyone has the same lifestyle as the kids on your block, doubly hard finding out that all the magical creatures in the world are piling on: Santa, the Easter Bunny AND the Tooth Fairy? Did that rich kid’s tooth hurt that much worse that he needed a $5 bill (I have no idea what the going rate is or even if kids still get visits from the Tooth Fairy, in my day it was a dime).
I got exposed to this at an early age. I was going to school at Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary in second grade, which was an elementary school on a Navy Base. I made friends with a little girl who invited me over to her house which was a LOT bigger than the housing quarters my dad was assigned, even as a 20 year Chief Petty Officer. Well it turns out it was the Admiral’s daughter and set off alarm bells up the chain of command, years latter I was told it caused my Dad and his Commanding Officer to have a meeting. I don’t know how it is or was in the Air Force but the Navy in 1964 and even when I was in after 1977 drew very strict lines between officer and enlisted afloat and ashore, even on a small ship you wouldn’t routinely walk through officers quarters unless you had specific duties there. For an enlisted man’s kid to hang with the Admiral’s daughter was the equivalent of race mixing (which is saying something, the Navy being historically the most racist of all of the services).
I was thinking of my early years in a small midWestern town. It was the 1930s. I had one “not very close” friend who was poor, but no more. Most upper strata kids went with others of similar class. Perhaps due to the fact that nobody was super-rich in a small town in the 30s the contrasts were not so extreme. I never observed much intense envy.
Bruce,
First I lived exclusively off-base during my career. Neither my wife or I could put up with eitehr the quality of housing nor the rules on-base.
As for the kids. My oldest had a plethora of friends. A few were enlisted kids and wy wife became pretty good friends with an enlisted. We had them over numerous times and it was no big deal. But the AF was pretty laid back about that – as long as you were’nt dating or in a supervisor-subordinate situation it was no big deal. The kids could care less…
But that was a lot different than the Navy in the 70s…
Islam will change
Coberly,
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/12/brooks.htm
This columns suggests that the low to middle class are less envy prone. And maybe its in the blue states where people get educated and think maybe the sky’s the limit that become more prone to envy since they can see into the world of the wealthy due to proximity but not quite get part for themselves, and this drives some of them crazy.
Geez.
On a more optimistic note, Mrs. Rustbelt and myself are not getting each other presents this year ** and we will watch the old tv one more year, but we have made a concerted effot to give extra money to charity and to get involved with special Christmas efforts.
We “adopted” a foster child through church, helped “adopt” a family through both out work places, sent money to the USO and other veteran’s charities, gave money to the Salvation Army, and helped with several other efforts. We increased out United Way pledge for next year.
None of the gifts were huge, but all when combined with the gifts of others will make a difference.
So we Rustbelts challenge all of the Bears to dig deep into whatever resources you have, whether the widow’s penny or great wealth, and share it this Christmas.
** Both of us will conspire with the children to get each other small gifts anyway, sort of fudging on the pledge.
Cantab
since i mostly agree with that… and that would ruin both our days… i’d just have to add that there seems to be something like “anti-envy” that drives some people crazy as well.
we do need a world where no one is “dirt poor” if we can help it. free enterprise does a pretty good job up to a point, but after that point is where you and i differ. note, i do not generally endorse “welfare” type solutions, except in real emergencies or real disability. do do i agree with “the poor poor” sentiment that seems to drive some “liberals.”
but when i look at whatever it is that drives some people who call themselves conservatives, i’ll take the liberals any day. i can’t imagine wanting to live in a country with slums, or the conditions that lead to them. and i don’t believe that lying to myself about “lazy” workers is good for me.
rusty
you are the salt of the earth and a better man than i am.
No, i just married very, very well. Happy holidays!!!!
Yes because normal Americans are not materialists, focused on accumulating cars, boats and electronic toys. Maybe someday we will develop a consumer culture and abandon our lifestyle of living off the land like our ancestors did before us.
Buwah?
Cantab maybe that is because your family was able to afford Christmas dinner, a Christmas tree and presents and you didn’t have anything to envy?
Look up the definition of ‘self-centered’ or perhaps ‘solipcist’. Sheesh.
Poor kids are not middle class by definition. And you (and I might add Coberly) didn’t read the piece carefully. Once you are socialized to something it just becomes part of the way the world works and may not manifest itself as conscious envy.
And compared to my cousins I was the rich kid so Cantab’s sneer about blue states kind of went off track as well.
That was Brooks at his most fatuous period. Which is fatuous indeed. My Mom has some very wealthy cousins (they own a hospital or did) and lived the same lifestyle in small town southern Indiana as they would have had they been living on eastern Long Island. There other home was in Dallas and they lived a more high end life down there because Dallas had the stores and restaurants their town didn’t
And it doesn’t support your overall point about envy. Instead he claims outright that people measure themselves against their neighbors. I spent a couple of years in central Indiana in a town experiencing some social upheaval. Noblesville then was divided into two halves by yes Division Street or actually by the railroad tracks a block away. The middle class lived “North of the Tracks”, the people working in the Goodyear factory ‘South of the Tracks’ and were mostly ultimately from a town called Covington Gap Kentucky. The class and social divide were just as stark as that railroad track, mostly the only socialization was in school and at sports events. In the early 70’s they damned the river to create valuable lake property which started getting built out and sold to upper middle class families. Which upended the whole class structure, it was pretty interesting to see the social realignment. Envy might not be the right word but there was certainly awareness of the differences and some degree of the blue/red distinction Brooks thought he saw.
In small town Indiana you didn’t have Country Clubs, not enough truly wealthy people to support one. But you did have an Elks Club that had the fine dining that Brooks couldn’t find. That he couldn’t find a steak dinner is because he didn’t know where to look. And as to envy he didn’t know the questions to ask. If he asked those people if they envied the people who could afford to visit Disneyland or even Branson every year he might have gotten some more insight.
In any event the whole thing was a bunch of pompous impressionism designed to sell the Bush image.
Bruce,
Cantab maybe that is because your family was able to afford Christmas dinner, a Christmas tree and presents and you didn’t have anything to envy?
Gee, that must have placed us in something like the top 99.5% of all households in America. All the families that I knew were either celebrating Christmas or out having dinner at a Chinese resturant.
Remember, even Bob Cratchit and family were going to have their Christmas dinner even before Ebenezer Scooge had his big night.
All the families that I knew
Yeah that is the problem. You seem to have blinders to any experiences but your own. But then you are representative of that crowd that says everyone has access to health care because Emergency Rooms exist.
Bob Cratchit would have been considered very well off by the multitudes of truly poor in London in his day. My Dad’s parents were dirt poor, Grandpa Bill fed his kids through the Depression by being a legendary poacher in the Sacramento Delta and lived his last years in a two-room ‘house’. My Mon was in the first post-war group of Navy Waves, leaving a job in Chicago where she was close to starving, meeting my Dad who jointed the military right after his 17th birthday for much the same reasons. I had a reasonably comfortable childhood, the first half in the Navy, and then okay as my Dad was only out of work twice between 1965 and 1974, but had to cut off all financial support on my eigteenth birthday as he once again lost a job. I have no complaints, mainly because I know a lot of people who are currently way worse off than I am. I am thinking you have had zero exposure to real poverty and real poor people. We just went through a period of record cold with overnight highs in the teens and a guy I know was afraid to turn on his electric heat, he had no way to pay the extra electrical bill. I don’t think all of these people are in the lower 0.5% of America.
Little tougher this year as consulting gigs are fewer and the wife’s salary is lower due to commissions being smaller. I have always tried to do something for the Gleaners like buy six complete meals for Thanksgiving. This year it was hard to find a grocer who would sell me 6 turkeys at the same sale price at $.69/pound. Six meals for families of six usually resulted in 14# turkeys, 2 cans each of Green Valley corn and green beans, a can of cranberries (ugh!), Brown and Serve rolls, 2 bags of stuffing, 5# of Idahoes, and an Apple Pie. It didn’t amount to more than $130 or so. I found it easy to do from an X-Marine Sgt’s pocket money.
I never had a new car till after I was married and my first car was a 66 Pontiac in 67 that I bought myself for $1800. My dad latter sold it while I was overseas which was ok as it was sitting around anyway. Our first real vacation on our own was a trip to Disnetworld in the family truckster a used 3/4 ton diesel suburban with 2 cpatains chairs, a bench seat in back, and enough room between the three so no one could impinge on the other’s territory and touch each other. We stayed at the Days Inn near the gate and went for 3 days before going to Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, and Ron Jons (when it was still a shack). We should have reversed the order of those destinations because Canaveral was still quonset huts and they were starting to rebuild it back then. The rockets and the space gear didn’t impress the three kids as much as Disney World. The trip was long and one big deal was in the night and going over a hill to find an area all lit up for a fireworks building in Tennessee.
I started all three of them with cars 8 to 12 years old when they reached driving age. We split on their insurance with the idea that a ticket would result in their paying the extra. Gasoline was mostly on them. While they never hit anyone, the cars were hit by other people. They did learn the value of owning a car though even though they were old. The learning was priceless as they appreciated new cars when they finally bought them. A year rarely went by when I didn’t have one of them in my garage being worked on by me. I tore down my daughter K car engine to replace the head gasket, rebuilt the carburator, both rear bake cylinder, installed new brake lines, shoes in the rear, and pads and rotors in the front in my unheated garage one winter. Weekends were busy and my hands bruised and nails dirty.
My neighbor worked for Ford and he was buying or leasing new cars for his daughters which were either totaled or wrecked at one time or another on Ford’s insurance. I believe they each went though 2-3 cars. The kids were jealous at times; but then, what teen wouldn’t be? They did learn the value of taking care of things and even my size 2 daughter knew how to check her engine oil, transmission fluid, tire pressure, and change a tire. Money was tight for us and it was tight for them as their money was earned in Summer and used throughout the year even while in college.
continued
My dad was blue collar and I went to worked with him at 16 as a laborer for his tuckpointing crews. He was sometimes the foreman on buildings like The Wrigley, The Merchandise Mart, Union Carbon and Carbide, the Stock Exchange, etc. in Chicago. I learned how to hang scaffolds, splice rope, and tie knots a subject I still teach those who are interested enough to learn it. His only words to me and the other 4 of us was “don’t do what I do, go to school.” Of the 5 of us, 3 of us received Graduate degrees, one a BA, and the last died early in life. We bypassed his grade school education and he was a very proud man at that point in life. I am not sure if this could be duplicated today by many.
My children got to know him and they grew to have a lot of respect for this smaller man who was larger than life. And yes they did enjoy better things in life than what we did as children and weren’t eating my mom’s spaghetti a couple of times a week or hamburger frequently unless it was a barbecue. For some reason in the fifties, $10k went farther for a family of 7. I can’t complain and my kids are full of stories about what they experienced while growing up . . . some of which are pretty funny when they play them back at you. We didn’t do bad in raising them and I can see the it coming back at us.
Bruce,
The only able bodied people in this country that I have some sympathy for are those from other countries that maybe grew up on a chicken farm and had little to no formal education. I don’t think you have much of an excuse with some exceptions for recession to not be able to make a comfortable life in this country. Comfort being defined as have a place to live, food, a car, tv, and the ability to buy things at least a bit above the necessities.
Bruce,
I don’t know where you come up with stuff like this
In any event the whole thing was a bunch of pompous impressionism designed to sell the Bush image.
This is how Brooks end his article.
The early evidence still holds: although there are some real differences between Red and Blue America, there is no fundamental conflict. There may be cracks, but there is no chasm. Rather, there is a common love for this nation—one nation in the end.
According to you a common love of country is the musing of a pompous person. And you got an attitude for Chistmas too. It’s like you’re swimming in the negative mood slime from the ghostbustera movie.
Run,
I am not sure if this could be duplicated today by many.
It can be duplicated by those that value the right things. I know of several Russian families that came to this country with nothing but an education and they pretty much are all sending their kids to college including places like Harvard and MIT. Poverty can be a mentality that is handed down between generations. The mentality is a culture that needs to be starved and driving out.
Bruce
while it is always possible I misread your post, I think it is at least as possible that you misread my comment. your post seemed to be suggesting that envy was an inevitible consequence of unequal incomes. i have seen a lot of envy and i believe the old timers were right when they called it a sin: it’s a way of making yourself sick.
some other commenters have suggested that they managed to skip the envy in the midst of inequality.
i think Cantab carries it a bit far when he goes on to imply that people who are poor have no one to blame but themselves. Even if they had no one else to blame… they are in some way less capable than the rest of us… we would have probably a moral obligation to do what we could for them to ease the worst aspects of poverty… despair, ignorance, grinding misery, but we would certainly have a self interest in helping them find a way out of poverty. i have suggested before the image of a farmer finding appropriate work for the least able of his farmhands… and all share in the harvest festival. i have felt myself at time that the people who work for me are not more than 10% useful… but i need that 10% so it pays me to encourage them, not drive them into hating their lives and me.
and this brings us back to Bruce.. I hope it’s easier to see that I agree with you about the evils of poverty and the special evil of extreme poverty in childhood. i just wished to make the point that envy is not exactly what we want to teach the poor.
Your point of view is simplistic. It’s not the size of your wallet that counts but the character of your soul. Even those the no resources can better themselves and reach the American dream. If not them then their children. This is the story of America. At least the good side of it.
Cantab
your comment follows mine but I am at a loss to understand how it is a response to mine. MY point of view is simplistic?
As for character of soul… i’d agree with you about that, but it has seemed to me in your posts that your “character” leads you to have contempt for the poor. my experience make me think character itself is a gift of experience. at least i wasn’t born with anything i’d care to call character now. and i expect what i have now is purely the result of enough good luck that i survived most of my mistakes and have enough of what i need that i don’t have to make excuses for myself.
i’m not even in much of a mood to give you a bad time.
Coberly,
your comment follows mine but I am at a loss to understand how it is a response to mine.
This is what you said:
I think Cantab carries it a bit far when he goes on to imply that people who are poor have no one to blame but themselves.
This is not my point of view . It’s a simplistic characature from a short list of personalities you want to reduce people down to.
My father, who was a child during the Great Depression, hated Christmas. When he was a boy, he was lucky to get a pair of socks for Christmas so, as an adult, he expected that the ability to spend money on his children would turn the whole event into a Norman Rockwell experience. It never did, of course, and he was always mightily disappointed. This is what inequality does to kids.
Cantab
thanks for the clarification. if it’s not your point of view, you need to make clearer (less simplistic?) what your point of view is. and, no, i don’t want to reduce people down to anything. i am always delighted when someone tells me something i didn’t think of before.
it seems to me, but only based on what I have read, that your point of view is reliably a simplistic restatement of Republican campaign slogans, with no effort, by you or by them, to account for all the complexities of the world most of us have to deal with.
i am not saying this to be mean. i am telling you how i see you. if i’ve got it wrong, you need to help me see better.
Peon
I think I understand what you are saying here. I feel the same way, but not because I only got socks… I got much more. In fact I began to feel guilty about getting stuff. With my own kids things seemed okay, but with my grandkids I think I seem them getting so much stuff it isn’t even fun for them.
Meanwhile I wish you, and all, the kind of Christmas you see on the old time Christmas cards, or sing in the old time Christmas carols.
Sorry, I am late to the party.
In my many years I have learned a few things.
“A man is as rich as the things he can do without”. Thoreau, In my age I am a wealthy man.
Not much I cannot do without.
The jealousy factor or disappointment at gift time, is the result of commercializing the holidays.
The reason for the season is in the name Christmas.
In this season may you all know peace.
Coberly–
Because I don’t have any children, Christmas is very low-key, and the major event is the dinner (usually involving crab) that my husband cooks. We don’t have snow either.
PeonInChief,The Christmas crab sounds good.
I would not burden five and six year olds with the sin of Envy.
We teach small children who still believe in magic that St. Nick is making a list of who is Naughty and Nice and rewards the latter and punish the former with Lumps of Coal. Yet no matter how hard poor kids try to make the Nice list, maybe by helping Mom with the little kids Santa Claus NEVER cuts them a break.
You and Cantab make the mistake that I am talking about classes generally and not about the specifics of socialization of small children.
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Lucy
http://bluetoothspeakerphone.net
i am poor or i would say lower class .i make the same amount every two months that you make in a week. why well because the poor dont get a choice from a young age what kind of education will be the best in the end and our parents were too ingnorant as well. it just a chain reaction and without someone with the skills knowlage or money to break that family tradition it will contiue forever. poor kids have more to worry about than why santa didnt show up,they are actually thankfull for what they get,not dwelling on what they didnt.(spoiled brats)