@Bjorn 12 December 2021 more from that month

We All Can Be Like Santa Claus

The cold wind has been blowing for a couple of days now. Can you feel the spirit of Christmas? **It’s thirteen days to go and it’s Christmas. This is the second time that we will celebrate this special season of the year with a lot of restrictions.** How are you preparing this coming Christmas? Have you listed the gifts you want to buy for your friends and loved ones? Occasionally people who believe in Christmas would like to celebrate it with utmost joy. Nobody wants to be lonely during this occasion. Who would want to? Some people spend their Christmas with family or loved ones outside their country. Well most people who do this of course don’t seem to have problems with money. As for common people like me, I just celebrated Christmas at home with my family. But I have failed to celebrate it with them for two years when I was working in the Middle East. The Man With Flying Reindeers

https://unsplash.com/photos/2qzZubxw7WE When I was a kid I received gifts like cheap toys and candies during Christmas from *“Santa Claus”* as my parents would always say. I wanted to believe that Santa Claus is real because of the gifts left for us at the small Christmas tree every 25th of December. However I was kind of skeptical about him even at a young age. I kept thinking that if Santa Claus is real how come that he gives me toys and candies that can be bought from the groceries. Is Santa Filipino too? All I know about the appearance of Santa Claus was from the movie I watched from our neighbor. You know his typical red suit, white long beard and moustache with a huge sack riding on a sleigh with his flying reindeers. So as a kid, the idea of Santa Claus literally giving gifts to people around the world is impossible. Santa Claus is a big lie. I was just a kid. I am not sure if my parents' convincing power is not enough for me to believe in the existence of Santa Claus or maybe it is just that I was a stubborn kid (laughs). History Repeat When my kids were just small I also tried to tell them about Santa Claus. I would tell them to hang a big foot sack near the door or window so that when Santa roams around during Christmas he would put gifts in there. I also told them to make a letter to Santa of whatever gifts they want to receive. Sometimes when they become disobedient I would tell them that Santa will not grant their wishes during Christmas.  So they will cooperate and try to become good kids so that Santa Claus will make their wishes come true. Santa Claus used as a consensus. However my kids really are my kids. They were doubtful about the existence of Santa Claus too when their gifts arrived. I mean even if their wishes were granted they still think of how swiftly Santa delivers the gifts.  He leaves no trace until finally realizing that it was their parents who were giving the gifts. Santa Claus is Symbolic

https://unsplash.com/photos/O33vBPD6hAw We as adults know about the existence of **Santa Claus** as a legendary character in Western Christian Culture. These days the existence of him is now symbolic but parents and adults are trying to make their kids and siblings believe that Santa Claus is real by literally giving them gifts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus We have to understand that kids in today’s generation are getting smarter because of the advancement in technology. The idea of Santa Claus dropping gifts through the chimney may no longer be acceptable for them. Remember that they will soon discover that their parents, uncle or godparents are the one’s giving them gifts. So they will realize too that Santa Claus is not real but he is giving those gifts thru their parents. We all can be Santa Claus to anyone and we can do it not just Christmas just like **Saint Nicholas** did.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas Thanks for reading. Ciao!

Lead image **source** credits to Hush Naidoo Jade Photography https://unsplash.com/photos/LldtZipkc9g https://unsplash.com/@hush52 ━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦ **To all those who support, Thank you!** ━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦