This article was not written by me. It is a ‘”copy and paste” from Facebook of an article by Kirk Wood, a friend of mine. Kirk and Pam were full-time RVers for over ten years. Last year, they “slightly” retired when they bought a piece of ground with an RV garage with attached living quarters.
We first met them about ten years ago, when both couples were Workampers near Monterey, California. We worked together again some years later, in Arizona. We’ve visited each other several times during the intervening years.
Kirk grew up in rural Kansas and is a few years younger than I am. Probably because I understood perfectly his position, I was so touched by his article that I requested and received permission to post it on this site. While I understood his view, I admit that I had never had the same feelings.
I do, however, remember the days of receiving one “major” toy, a few “stocking stuffers” which might have been small toys or necessitiies such as a new stocking cap.
“Am I the only one here who does not really like the Santa Claus tradition?….
“What I remember from the days that I believed in this was that we were poor so I really depended upon Santa to bring me some nice thing like all of my friends got. Since my friends were all from families with reasonably good incomes, they got some wonderful things each year which I could only dream of.
“The year that I remember best, I started very early to work hard at being one of the nicest, best behaved, of all the children on his list! I think that I must have been about 6 years old at the time and while not perfect, I came pretty close for a small boy. Imagine my disappointment on Christmas morning, when I received my usual one small toy, new socks and a shirt. It was then that I concluded that for some reason Santa did not like me as well as he did all of my friends. That was the last year that I ever considered Christmas a good time of year. Fortunately it was not much later that I discovered the truth about Santa Claus and where presents actually came from, to my great relief. It was much easier to deal with being poor, than to think that Santa doesn’t like me!
“As far as I am concerned, Santa Claus as it is practiced in our country is a nasty tradition that by design makes the poor children feel even worse. Imagine how they must feel having to return to school and compare what gifts they got from Santa to those of their classmates! I could tell Santa what he should do with his list!
“Christmas was, and should be a religious holiday which was given as much to the poor as to the wealthy. At my house, Santa Claus is not welcome!”
Thanks, Kirk, for allowing me to share this.