What is it with this Santa thing? What is the emotional pull that causes otherwise rational adults to go ga-ga and lose all perspective? What is the attraction of waiting 45 minutes with a toddler in a line a mile long? Why is it that parents who would otherwise pay attention to their children�s distress just have to force that baby, in uncomfortable clothes, to sit on the lap of the guy with that scary beard so they can get a photo to display who knows where? Inquiring minds want to know.

As a Jewish kid, and now a Jewish adult, I�ve never understood the Santa phenomenon. I can understand make-believe and I love make-believe but my make-believe with my children involves both of us knowing we�re playing make believe. If I know you�re making believe about Santa and his powers, how can I be sure you�re not just making believe about Jesus and his supposed powers?

I can accept and, to a point (but only to a point), understand people believing that Joshua ben Joseph is the messiah. I can even accept them believing that he is God or part of God although I�m not at all sure why God would come in parts or why God requires a partially-human sacrifice. I doubt that my religious belief system is really rational or necessarily completely consistent so I don�t expect that of others to be.

What I can�t understand is why it seems to be a bigger crime to explain to children that I don�t believe in Santa Claus than it is to explain to them that I don�t believe in Jesus. As near as I have been able to ascertain, Santa has very little, if any, actual religious significance (although I know the same is not true of St. Nicholas.) Somehow, for many, believing in Santa seems to be a measure of childhood innocence and constant demonstration of belief in Santa by one�s children is seen as a litmus test of whether one has protected that precious commodity. Anything that threatens that belief is dangerous and justifies strong counter-measures that fail to account for the beliefs or needs of others, even if those others also are children.

How can there be true believers in what they know not to be true? And yet there are�and the depth of their passion for the fictional scares me this time of year.

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Note: A few years back, I entered a contest in which I was asked to write about trying to explain Christmas to an alien. I ended up writing a poem. After writing this entry, I know why that poem was so easy to write. I am that alien.

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