Shirley Temple Figured Out Christmas at the Age of 6

“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”

~Shirley Temple


According to a 2013 report from Pew Research, hardly any kids in America believe in Santa Claus, hardly anyone enjoys its obligations, everybody hates shopping during the season and only 7% look forward to being around happy and joyful people. The ones who do look forward to being around happy and joyful people are probably the ones who have spent the last few weeks glue-gunning little pieces of felt on something.

Based on statistics like those, maybe Sarah Palin was right when she first sniffed out a War on Christmas back in 2013, one that was oozing out of the toxic bunkers of liberal media.

But not so fast, Sarah. Religious blogs like FaithStreet have published opinions that telling kids about a fat man that squeezes through chimneys make parents feel uncomfortable: they don't like lying to their children, they don't like Santa getting all the credit for all their glue-gunning (isn't that greed or something?), and they suspect that Santa, by association, turns god into a fairy tale.

Meanwhile, it's liberal establishments, like the toxic PBS Newshour, that have opined that, just maybe, fooling kids into believing that there's a Santa isn't really a lie, it's a lesson in mystery. LiveScience -- and they have science in their name, so they're probably part of the liberal conspiracy as well -- reports that psychologists don't think telling myths to kids is really such a bad thing. Like most myths, they argue, this one has a lesson buried in it -- and it's a lesson that teaches the value of giving. Which is a key element of (usually unobserved) Christianity.

The fact is, Christmas is a copycat holiday inspired by the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, and, in America, holidays pretty much are keeping our economy crawling along. Valentine's Day sells chocolate; no one would buy a damn Peep or straw basket if it weren't for Easter; Mother's Day sells flowers; Father's Day sells ties; Independence Day sells flags (though most of them are produced in China); no one knows what Arbor Day is but Thanksgiving and Christmas sell just about everything else. Anyone with half a brain realizes all of that. One of FDR's attempts to help the depressed American economy was to make Thanksgiving a week earlier so that there was more time for retailers to hype Christmas and Christmas shopping. FDR was no conservative, but usually conservatives don't do much for the American economy. And maybe that's why they don't want Christmas to be commercialized.

But let's just embrace the commercialization this year. Because you are Santa. And your elves are the people who work hard to make the crap you buy at the mall. Commercialization is the true spirit of Christmas in America, and there's nothing wrong with it.

After all, even Shirley Temple learned the truth about Christmas in a department store.

(Links on Original post at http://lesterandcharlie.com/2015/12/20/the-temple-of-santa/ )