Why I Hate Santa

This time of year is kind of complicated. 

For me it's a time of spiritual reflection, appreciating God, celebrating Divine Life and Light, that wonderful, nostalgic sense that comes from playing in snow and wandering through snowflakes, getting warm and comfy, visiting with family, acknowledging and drawing near to the miracle that is Christ, and being more open and giving towards others. 

Then this guy wanders in talking about the latest iPhone and Black Friday sales... 

I hate him. I hate him so much. 

And for a while it was hard for me to articulate why to other people. But then recently -in part thanks to the Catholic school I clean at for my second job at night -I discovered one of the underlying reasons I resent Santa and all that he has come to represent about this time of year. 

Saint Nicholas. 

No one knows much about him or what he did, but we took from old Saint Nick and wrapped him in a compilation of various other people to create this caricature known as "Santa". 

Saint Nicholas was amazing. Regardless of your religious beliefs, his contributions can easily be appreciated and acknowledged. 

One of the most well known actions he took in particular was using his wealth to help children in poverty. There was a father with 3 daughters who were between the ages of 9 and 12 that he knew he couldn't afford dowries for. So when he started running low on money he decided to sell them all at once to other men to be raped for profit. Sex trafficking. 

3 times Nicholas "anonymously" put a huge bag of gold on the man's door to prevent him from selling his daughters into slavery. Since he was the only one around with kind of money it wasn't too hard for people to figure out what he did. And he did it several times over the years because every time the father would go through the money he'd been given he kept reverting back to trying to sell his daughters. 

And there are other people that Santa is based on that were giving and generous and kind -particularly to children in need -who then don't get acknowledged because we made up this character to take their place. 

In conclusion, I hate Santa. 

But I'm ok with Rudolph.