Terror of the Bells
Some meandering thoughts about Christmas, Santa, wonder, agnosticism, and The Polar Express
I recently watched the Polar Express for the first time. The movie, along with other holiday media I’ve been immersing myself in lately, is making me think a lot about my relationship with Santa and with Christmas.
FYI in case you haven’t seen The Polar Express yet - there is a high level of spoilers in this!
Hmm I've been thinking more about all of this stuff since I made this recording, and realizing that I completely forgot about the whole naughty/nice part of the Santa story, and how exhausting parenting is, and how desperate parents must be for literally any tool that could help them control their child. I think it was easy for me to forget about that, as a non-parent. And easy to come up with these ideals of how I want to treat my imaginary children. But if I did become a parent, who knows if I would actually have the energy to live up to those ideals.
If I look at Santa as mainly a tool to control children's behavior, and the fun, magical aspects of the story being just a cherry on top, then a movie like The Polar Express suddenly makes a lot of sense. It feels more dark than ever now haha... but makes sense. If a child in the movie is coerced into believing in Santa... well, that's pretty in line with the whole vibe of Santa in general, isn't it?
Ughhh I don't know how I feel about all of this now. Like, I don't like the idea of lying to children or manipulating them like that. But also I don't understand how hard it is to be a parent and maybe that is what's necessary just to control your child and keep your sanity?
I would be very curious to hear the thoughts of actual parents if any are reading this.