Maybe a small rant. Mostly because I already detest Best Buy and really have no interest in purchasing their over-priced electronics. I’m also pretty done with the poor customer service and the general obnoxiousness of Christmas shopping. To wit, the absurdity of the Black Friday insanity. Disgusting displays of man’s inhumanity to man.

It started when we stopped wishing each other Merry Christmas.

I’m only half-serious about that statement. The serious half wants to know…when did this happen? Look, I’m not even going to make this about religion.  Christ has always been in my Christmas, although I admit there were sad years when he wasn’t getting the attention he deserved.

But this rant is about Santa…we’ve already effectively taken Christ out of Christmas. In fact, we’ve taken God out of just about everything. Marriage. School. Thanksgiving. Our currency.

Why wouldn’t a snarky ad campaign dissing Santa be game?

There’s a lot to criticize. There’s the whole treatment of Santa, for one. As a cultural icon, he’s representative of a number of virtues. We could get into the whole origins story with St. Nicholas, but let’s keep it simple. Santa, he of the reindeer and North Pole and friendly elves. He’s a good guy. He works tirelessly to spread joy.

And those good guys… They get picked on. Discredited. Ridiculed. Crucified. (oops. I forgot I was keeping this about Santa)

It’s open season in our culture to laugh at and ridicule the very values that have made this society great. It’s shameful, especially when it happens from the top, down. Did you happen to see the mockery our president made of the annual turkey pardon on Thanksgiving? Oh sure, it was edgy and funny. It’s only a turkey. Or is it?

Here’s the thing. I really don’t care about Santa. Not really. And I don’t care about a turkey getting pardoned or not. But I do care about the bigger picture, whether it’s a myth about goodness and generosity or a symbol of the nation. When both of those can come under fire, we’re doing it wrong as a culture.