Christmas is a Time . . . to Feel Threatened

Throughout the holiday season, how many times have you witnessed this scene?: A parent and child are in store.  The child is arguing with the parent for some reason.  (The child wants candy, is bored, is tired, etc.)  The parent says, "Look Tommy, if you don't start behaving, Santa is not going to leave anything for you under the tree."  The child pretty much immediately stops arguing.

I see this all the time, and it always freaks me out a little bit.  First of all, no, I am not a parent.  I am not speaking from my own child-rearing experience, and I do not assume that it is easy to raise or discipline children.  Secondly, I never even believed in Santa Claus.  My parents tried to sell the whole Santa thing to me--to the point of even having a neighbor dress up as Santa and visit the house when I was kid--but I just never bought into the whole St. Nick thing.  Even though I love Christmas and start getting excited for the holiday months in advance, I was a kind of rational kid.  That particular fairy tale never worked for me.

Still, I do understand how powerful Santa is for some kids.  Every Christmas while I was growing up, before we went to my grandmother's for Christmas lunch, my mother would say to me, "Don't you dare tell your cousin that there is no Santa."  My cousin was a true-believer.  I swear this went on until she was 15.  That was fine by me.  I wasn't out to debunk the myth for other kids.  I just didn't believe myself.

That is why I find it so upsetting when I see parents telling their kids if they do not behave, Santa will pass them by.  Parents help to build Santa up to mythical proportions for their kids.  They read stories and sing songs and even willingly take their children to sit on the lap of a complete stranger dressed in red and white.  Santa is supposed to be the embodiment of jolliness and generosity.

Apparently he is also the embodiment of an omniscient and judgemental force with the power to giveth and the power to taketh away.  When a parent says, "If you don't clean your room/stop hitting your sister/come here right this minute, Santa will not leave you any presents", what he or she is really saying is, "If you don't do what I tell you, the figure whom I have encouraged you to invest with all of your hopes and dreams will turn on you like a rabid dog and leave you a lump of coal rather than that Bratz doll/mechanized dinosaur/IPod that you asked him for when I dropped you on his lap at the mall last week.  He will judge you, and you, my little friend, will come up wanting."  I don't remember Bing Crosby or Burl Ives singing about anything like that.

I know that parents don't think that this is what they are doing.  I know that these are perfectly good care-givers who would never dream of saying something to their kids like "If you don't clean your room, I will not love you any more."  Still, can we take the threat out of Christmas?  I mean, what do people say to their kids in March when they are misbehaving?  Santa definitely doesn't have as much power at that time of year.  Why not, at this time of year, just let Santa use his powers for good and not evil?