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December 25th, 2009 Santa's had a Hard Time This Year BARBARA VENEZIA FOOD FOR THOUGHT Columnist Christmas Day’s here; tomorrow I get my life back. Don’t get me wrong, right after Thanksgiving I’m excited about the upcoming holiday jingle-belling it all the way. But this year retailers started putting out decorations right after Halloween, some as early as September. By December my enthusiasm was starting to wane. How long do these guys think we can be merry? What about the over-worked mall Santas? Friends with kids said the quality of Santas vary with each mall. When I asked one of my nine year old buddies, (who prides herself as a “Santa aficionado”), who she thought had the best Santa this year, she told me Rogers Gardens hands down. She gave a B+ to the Santa at South Coast Plaza, but didn’t like the Santa at Fashion Island, “He wasn’t very believable”, she said. Ok, so how many Santa’s does this kid visit? When I was her age we were lucky to visit one Santa, and if he didn’t stink of booze, it was a good day... boy have times changed and so has the business of being a mall Santa. This year Santa’s across the country were asking for H1N1 vaccines before the season started. Santa organizations were even suggesting Santas not wear their traditional white gloves and use hand sanitizer more frequently, even urging kiddies who sit on their lap to do the same, Santa’s lesson in good health. At the heart of the controversy, the Centers for Disease Control’s protocols reserving the vaccine for the highest-risk groups: pregnant women; health care workers; people ages 6 months to 24 ; adults ages 24-64 with an underlying medical conditions; and those caring for children under 6 months old. No mention of Santa? Bah Humbug CDC! According to the Sacramento Bee, Ernest Berger president of Santa America, “Santas come in contact with more children than any other person or profession. Very few health care workers or teachers will see that many children...Many of our Santas are over 100 pounds overweight," said Berger. "It puts them at enormous risk." Talking about throwing Santa under the bus! Not only are they at risk for a pandemic virus and have to put up with kids who sneeze and pee on them, but now those who are the most authentic of mall Santas have been called out as fat and unhealthy. But Santas have a bigger problem, suspicious kids. My 10 year old niece still believes in Santa, her friends at school don’t. So she set out to prove once and for all if Santa was a myth. She sent her “real” list to him at the North Pole. She left a bogus list around the house for her dad to see. If she got the gifts on the bogus list, she’d know her dad bought them and her friends were right, Santa didn’t exist. If she got what was on the North Pole list, he was real. She was so proud of her plan she shared it with grandma who tipped off her dad. Guess she should have paid more attention to those Nancy Drew books. So at least for this year, there’s still one more little girl who believes in Santa. Merry Xmas Freelance writer Barbara Venezia's opinion column appears online and in The Current every Friday. Email BV at bvontv@earthlink.net |
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