Tim Wilson / CC
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – There’s a letter to Santa that’s gone viral on social media.
A boy writes his Christmas list. Two of his gifts are very expensive.
He gets a letter back. His parents have answered as “Santa”. And the letter says he’ll get one of his gifts, not both.
And the boy writes again. He can’t understand that the giver of gifts can grant only one of his Christmas wishes.
And Santa writes back again. Not every boy and girl can get everything. Part of Christmas is being thankful for what you do get.
And the child’s next letter is angry. Don’t you use elves as slaves? Next year, I’m poisoning your Christmas cookies. And I’m attacking your reindeer. And I’m taking whatever I want from your sleigh.
And, of course, the boy’s parents are outraged at their child’s rudeness and lack of Christmas spirit.
This is the tame version of what happened in Milwaukee earlier this month. If you don’t know that story, a 10-year-old murdered his mother – shot her in the head – because she wouldn’t buy him an expensive virtual reality headset.
And I call for a moment of pause before we blame out-of-control greedy children.
If Christmas is little more than St. Nicholas appearing like an Amazon deliveryman for kids who’ve been good, why wouldn’t there be a sense of entitlement? And when the entitled don’t get what they want, they tend to become angry, albeit to varying degrees.
Have these children been told why we give presents at Christmas? Do they know that gift-giving, not receiving, is an expression of gratitude for receiving God’s gift, Jesus Christ? We have an entire generation of kids who think of the holiday as Christmas trees, decorations, candy canes, Frosty and Rudolph, and ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’.
Parents, if the true meaning of Christmas lives within you, it must be shared.
Without Christ, the holiday is nothing but materialistic paganism. Shouldn’t Christmas be more than an orgy of greed and selfishness?
Chris Conley
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