When my six-year-old niece showed me how to knock down any wall with the aid of an Angry Bird I was impressed, to say the least – the kid’s got game!
As I asked her what things she asked Santa for this year she said her Mommy had helped send her list of wishes directly to The North Pole via the website.
She further explained that FedEx and UPS had been there daily with boxes from Amazon. com along with a host of other online retailers, so Santa’s stuff’s not that cool since it didn’t come that way.
I guess the elves haven’t got what it takes in the shipping business according to a six year old, six billion addresses in one night just isn’t enough. I proposed something to her to help her relate to the astronomic impossibility of it all. I wanted to make a statement of support for Father Christmas, to help her believe in the magic of Christmas, like before the Internet.
We started by talking about Santa’s surviving for multiple generations, how his flying reindeer were still faster than any airplane ever made… How Santa could fit down any chimney and has a sack full of toys for every kid on his nice list, and how Santa can chow down millions of cookies and drink tankers full of room temperature milk and How Santa’s helpers magically appear in hundreds of places at the same time before Christmas to hear the wants of every child and Santa Knows what you are up to all the time.
She rolled her eyes at all of these amazing things and walked away to go back to the Angry Birds game.
She later drew my wife aside and explained that she’d better drive home, that Old Uncle Richard had passed his limit on Holiday Cheer.
When the Mrs. asked the youngster why she felt that way her answer was painful to hear.
“You can do all of the things that Santa Claus does through the internet, we don’t need a Real Santa anymore.”
I was certain, until then, that every child under the age of ten wanted to sit on Santa’s lap and beg the jolly fat man for anything that came to mind.
Now I know only one thing for sure, naughty kids still get a lump of coal in their stockings.
She will believe soon enough.