The Christmas we get we don't deserve

"So this is Christmas..."

or so goes John Lennon's Christmas song's opening line. I always considered it a touch cyncal until I ran face to face with what is my all-time favourite Christmas song:

Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "I Believe in Father Christmas" (okay, the incredible Pete Sinfield wrote the lyrics...but just as Elton John gets 99% of the glory for Bernie Taupin's lyrics, the performer, here, takes the stage).

If you're not familiar with it, dig it up. It's a beautiful piece of music and the lyrics have meaning today. I don't agree fully with the sentiments, but it does embrace the fact that we are somewhat hypocritical and dishonest in this season.

"They said there'll be snow for Christmas
they said there'll be peace on Earth
But instead it just kept on raining
a veil of tears for the virgin birth"

I once had an argument with an associate over the fact that I raised my children not to believe in Santa Claus. My first wife made the case, and rightly so, that when we lie to our children, even in fun, we are setting a dangerous precedent, one that allows them to ignore our later exhortations to stay away from dangerous things and to believe in the things we believe in, freely.

"They sold me a dream of christmas
They sold me a silent night
And they told me a fairy story
’till I believed in the Israelite"

That stanza sums up that note. How can we, straght-faced, lie to our Children about Santa Claus and then expect them to trust us regarding even something as important and essential as our very religious beliefs? The associate I was arguing with said that by teaching children to believe in Santa Claus at an early age, we were giving them the ability to believe in something they couldn't see, but that was real, like Jesus.

That is so wrong-minded in so many ways. Broken trust is broken trust. And I, for one, do not think Jesus and Santa Claus are, at the core, similar in terms of the nature of their existence.

"Hallelujah, Noel
Be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas we get we deserve."

The final line of these lyrics is so jarring. I think we, at Christmas, usually get better than we deserve, just as we, in faith, get a better deal from God than we deserve.

Merry Christmas, everyone. May you get a better Christmas than you deserve and may the New Year bring you a clearer path and great peace.