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Christmas keeps giving
Ablorh-Odjidja
December 15, 2018


It is easy to tear things down, but to build the same up is another matter.

That was my reaction when the story was written that a kindergarten teacher told his little wards that Santa was not real.

“There was no Santa for these kids? What for and what a cruel thing to do!” I said to myself.

This piece is written to show that this teacher had something missing in his head; the essence of Santa. Not the corporality of the jolly figure we see at Christmas. Any adult should know  what was wrong with the teacher's view of Santa.

Beyond the red outfit and white beard, Santa is very real.


There may be cultural and historical objections to a white Santa for those of us from Africa. We may thus complain about the racial insensitivity, or of a cultural misappropriation of a foreign image. And any of these may be a valid charge.

But the charge should not negate the good will and joy that undergird the imagery.  Nor deny that we, as Africans, possess the same qualities in our own cultural affairs.
 
Santa could have shown up in a child friendly African facemask, atop a raffia outfit and the purpose of the message from this teacher would have been the same – to banish Santa, as a folk concept, from the thoughts of these fragile kids put under his care.

And that would have been a violation of a very human reflection.

Spend one Christmas in the company of kids, where Santa Claus was the main attraction, as I did with some, including two of my own grand kids and you would have understood why.

When Santa appeared at the reception organized for these little ones, I saw the instant joy that lit up their little faces.
 
All joyful faces, except those of my grandson and another, both under a year old, who were experiencing Santa for the first time.
 
When my grandson was brought to Santa, he pushed the jolly white bearded old man away. He was yet to understand the folk concept that undergird the personality of Santa. In time, he would discover the joy behind the imagery.
    
Not long after, my grandson would sit comfortably on the same Santa’s lap, with his mother close by.  If there was a Santa, he was now in the same vicinity as his mother.
 
But my grandson, at his age, should be excused for his initial irritation about Santa. It was because of the lack of a knowledge that could only be obtained from the abstract, which, also, demanded some maturity.   


However, the kindergarten teacher, long past the age of his wards, should not be so excused.

Santa, the abstract expression of joy and goodwill, should not be destroyed. This immature attempt to do so should be declared an act of cruelty.

At the end of the reception, about two hours after the presents and packages were distributed, Santa was ready to leave. My daughter and my three years old Granddaughter left to see him off.
 
Once the door closed behind Santa, my granddaughter rushed to the nearest window. And she came back with a puzzled look on her face and asked, “where is the sleigh”?

Her mother answered her, “Up the street.”

My granddaughter left her mother and gleefully joined her little friends.

Santa had left the house but the joy on the faces of these kids remained. They all hoped to see him again and again. A small but, nevertheless, a foundation for joy had happened in the lives of these kids.

Long before my granddaughter, there was my own experiences with her mother.

We used often to drive past the New York Harbor. Soon as the Lady Liberty statue came into view, I would tell my daughter that the statue winked at me.
 
And I would tell her why the wink, that the statue was there in the harbor to welcome those who wanted to do well in America.

I told the story a few times until one day I said the “wink” story the last time. And immediately, she responded.

“Daddy, Lady Liberty can’t wink. She is a stone”!

She was about four but already grown and more mature than the  kindergarten teacher, who wanted to extinguish the notion of Santa from the minds of little kids.

 

My daughter got to know Lady Liberty was a statue.  The difference was she never forgot the message.  My little white tale about the "wink" did not damage her. She went on to get herself a good education, just like lady Liberty would wish.

And to this day, she and I still treasure the moments we had together driving past Lady Liberty, as we did those moments with the little packages deceptively planted under our home Christmas tree as gifts from Santa.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com , Washington, DC, December 15, 2018.


Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website, email a copy of the web page to publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at all.

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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