Editorials

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

What the heck, Merry Christmas

By: Editorial

Posted: 11/14/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

THE Christmas season these days seems to begin as soon as Halloween has finished. As soon as the last ghost and pirate and ballet dancer have doffed their costumes, and when children's tummies are still tender from too many treats, visions of sugarplums begin to dance in their heads.

So it should come as no surprise then that the 100th anniversary edition of Winnipeg's Santa Claus parade will held today at 5 p.m. Although some people call this rushing the season, it seems doubtful this year that many will complain, given the weather we have been having recently. The parkas, winter boots and toques that so often line the Santa Claus parade route can stay in storage this year if we get the weather that was being forecast as this was being written.

Elsewhere in today's paper, Aldo Santin reports the detail of this year's celebration and the traditions that have arisen around the parade over the years. The timing of this 100th anniversary that will precede Santa down Portage Avenue today is particularly appropriate. Not only will an early evening start mean minimal disruption for the businesses on the streets that are closed to accommodate it, but it allows the festivities to go well into night after Santa has ho-ho-hoed his way to the end of the parade, with block parties being planned and fireworks at The Forks.

And, when you think about it, is there anything wrong with rushing the season? Christmas over the years has become increasingly a secular as well as a religious celebration. Some Canadians, of course, do not celebrate it all, a few simply because they are Scrooges, but many of them because their personal religious beliefs lead them to the celebration of different events.

Those who see Christmas as a purely religious event are free to observe it as they fit. Those who see it as a season of good times and gift-giving can embrace that as enthusiastically as they choose.

But almost all Canadians can embrace Santa himself. He is the direct descendant of St. Nicholas, metaphorically, the boy-bishop of Myra in Turkey who in the fourth century was renowned for both his piety and his generosity. Santa today has become an international symbol of joy, celebration and generosity, the epitome of the much-maligned commercial Christmas. He embodies in a unique way both secular and the spiritual sides of the holiday.

Santa employs a lot of doubles to stand-in for him in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but except for the little boy in the song who claimed to have caught his mommy kissing Santa Claus under the mistletoe, no ever sees him on Christmas Eve. He will, however, be bringing up the end of the Santa Claus parade in Winnipeg tonight. Go take a look at him and get started on having a merry Christmas.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 14, 2009 A18

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