It’s Christmas time and Santa Claus has come to town – my four year old son is sure of that! His older brother is developing a natural skepticism that eventually comes to Santa believers. But it’s nice to see he loves to share in his younger brother’s belief. It’s a lot of fun to wonder what Santa will bring you at Christmas time, and it’s one of those beliefs that leads to happy memories of childhood – like the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. It’s interesting, however, to watch the questions that start forming in a youngster’s mind as they begin to question some of the stories that form their magical world. My 4-year-old hasn’t yet asked how Santa will cope with the fact that we have a gas fireplace and no chimney big enough for Santa to come down. Or how will Santa be able to get from the mall where he’s posing posing for pictures with kids on his knee and back to North Pole in time to take the reindeer sled out on Christmas eve? The nice thing about a child’s imagination, though, is that it never let’s the impossible get in the way of coming up with a solution. There’s no doubt a good lesson in that for adults too.
This year I saw an interesting news report about how many children in North America believe in Santa Claus. Based on a study in 1978, about 85% of 4-year-olds said that they believed in Santa. That was followed by 65 per cent of 6-year-olds, and 25 per cent of 8-year-olds. Another more recent study in 2011 showed about 83 per cent of North American 5-year-olds believed in Santa Claus. Statistically, I am now assured that my kids are normal, but I really didn’t need statistics to prove this. I see it every day of this season when they are with their friends, all happily getting along enjoying the Christmas spirit.
I also discovered this year that the visual image of our modern North American Santa Claus comes from a magazine illustrator named Thomas Nast. His illustration of Santa Claus in 1881 formed the basis of our contemporary idea of a portly and jolly man with a long white beard in a red suit. This image quickly became a large part of North American culture, much of it because of the advertising campaigns for Coca-Cola. Throughout the 1920s, ‘30s,‘40s, and ’50s, Coca-Cola ads featured a Santa Claus in his famous red suit and white beard enjoying the soft drink at Christmas time. Their advertising nor doubt helped to sell a lot of soft drinks, but it also firmly embedded the image of Santa Claus in popular culture. The artist Nast was said to have found his inspiration for this image in a well-known poem written by Clement Moore in 1822. The poem is better known for its first line,‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and contains all the basic elements in our modern Santa Claus story – a sled driven by Santa pulled by eight reindeer, landing on rooftops for Santa’s traditional chimney entrance, with gifts for good little boys and girls.
Whichever way Santa may get into your home and into your hearts this year really doesn’t matter. The important thing is that Santa’s spirit of generosity and kindness is part of your family. It’s a wonderful way to end a year and prepare for a new year just around the corner. Our joy of Santa might also remind us that many people do not have a gift-giver in their lives, and that we may have the opportunity to be a Santa to someone of any age whose life would be brightened with a gift from us.
Along with my wife Cindy and my sons Warren and Kingston, we all wish you a very Merry Christmas, and may Santa bring you much happiness.
Thanks for reading!
Sibo Zhang, REALTOR®