I think its a sign of age when you start saying stuff like “Christmas has come around so quickly this year.” As if it were capable of coming around faster that last year.

I found a funny website that you might enjoy spending a few minutes browsing. sketchysantas.com is a collection of submitted pictures of some sketchy looking Santa’s that have been scaring children over the years. Some of the pictures are hilarious, and as I was looking at them and laughing I started to wonder if it was really okay for me to be laughing at the obvious terror of small children.

Santa is a funny character when you think about it. We teach our young children (and indeed adults) to be deeply fearful and suspicious of “strangers” and never to talk to them. “Strangers” are not to be trusted under any circumstances, yet on this one night a year we tell children that this fat old man is going to break into their home and come into their bedroom while their parents sleep in another room, but this time it’s entirely safe and okay.

Eventually they learn that -spoiler alert!- Santa isn’t real and that in fact the reason why Daddy looked a lot like Santa is because Daddy IS Santa! I can’t remember when or how I learned that Santa wasn’t real. My brother probably told me, or my overly intelectual friend Darryl who likely constructed some convoluted ‘scientific’ experiment with his chemistry set to determine the truth behind Santa’s logistical mastery over Christmas eve.

I wonder though, how does this work for religious people who tell their children that Santa is delivering their gifts? When a religiously indoctrinated child realises that Santa isn’t real do they then start to wonder if Daddy might also be God too?

“Well Johnny, I admit Santa isn’t real, but God really IS real. And this time I mean it, he really is, honestly!”

Anyway, I hope you all have a great Christmas and that ‘Santa,’ whomever he might be, brings you all that you wished for.

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See some sketchy Santas at sketchysantas.com
Funny Christmas decorations