Dear Santa
I hope this letter reaches you before you head out on Christmas Eve and use your magic and head-of-the-curve technology to visit over 150 million houses overnight, delivering presents to over 2.1 billion children, knowing exactly who is on your naughty and nice list.
This letter might seem strange, shocking, even un-Christmas-like, but I want you to think about it.
Please do not deliver presents this year. Not the kind that are found in stockings and under the tree, to be played with, built, ridden on, viewed, eaten, smelled, or collected.
What we need this year, the world, is something that will require all your infinite magic and all your miracles and most importantly, all your love for the children in our world.
I really think everyone will opt out of receiving individual gifts this year in favour of the following list.
For all the sick children in the world, those whose lives will be cut short by illness, accident, crime, nature, please make sure that the North Pole exists in Heaven, so their souls can come to you and spend the day, where they will have a sense of the divine, a hint of the beyond, a whiff of the transcendent, where everything they imagined is real, enchanting, sacred, and wondrous. Where the joy felt by little boys and little girls on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is felt in their hearts for eternity.
That the joy and innocence and wonder find again those whose goals have become to terrorize our world, and that their lives are rewound to their infancy or childhood where they found security and happiness from their mother’s touch, where they played and sang and laughed, felt hope and playfulness and always, love, never hate, and ensure their lives go in a direction where they are not corrupted by evil and violence in the name of religion or culture or race or Holy Wars.
And while you are using your magic to rewind lives to do-overs, give that gift to ensure the addicted do not take the first drink, hit, snort, or shoot up and if it’s too late, that we embrace them in their pain and trauma and treat them for their sickness and not their criminality.
And finally, before you return to a forward motion, rewind the cycles of child abuse that impact too many, so that innocence is preserved and the cycle is no more.
That the world understands perversity and molestation, rape and pedophilia are not acts that remain isolated to one time and that those afflicted with the desire to harm and hurt and behave towards others only to satisfy themselves cannot be rehabilitated and should not be released back into our communities.
That the rich embrace giving, benevolence, and value relationships over acquisitions and simplicity over excess.
That people understand we are all the same no matter what color we are, no matter what our vocation is, whether we wear blue collars, white collars, or no collars, whether we have a home or not, whether we are fat or thin, disfigured or beautiful, and it doesn’t matter what gender we are, what gender we choose to be, who we choose to love, or, who we choose to worship, all that matters is we all practice the Golden Rule and hold that as most precious in defining how we live.
That Bibles are not thumped and every scripture or sacred text is not used to promote intolerance and hate.
That everyone finds something to have faith in, and even atheists feel the possibilities of the eternal, and sceptics and agnostics hear the music of ‘Silent Night’ or ‘Alleluia’ know there is something greater for them to rely on.
That we understand all animals are sentient beings, who have intrinsic value in their existence, life and beauty, and that they feel hurt, they love, they grieve, they feel sadness, fear, and joy, and they don’t want to fight nor should they be made to for sport and money. They do not want their babies to be taken away or to be butchered nor should they experience the terror of a kill floor or the trauma of abuse.
That minimum wage doesn’t mean minimum respect.
That we know, we believe, that when we talk to our loved ones in Heaven, they hear us.
That we take the politics out of leadership, the worship away from celebrities, and the sides out of marriage and those vows, our covenants to one another are cherished and remembered especially when life together gets difficult. And if they must be broken, that is done with dignity, sacrifice and respect.
That every person has four walls and a roof to call their own and if not , we who do help them get theirs without delay.
That every person has access to clean water, nutrition, and medicine.
That we all practice forgiveness.
That veterans are honoured at all times and we strive to send no one in their place.
That sons and daughters honour their mothers and fathers and hold sacred their family unit, the one they came from, and that they try on the shoes walked in by their parents, and are humble for it. That people realize estrangement breaks hearts and crushes souls and the collateral damage robs children of their heritage. Love and forgiveness trumps hate and grudges, every time.
That fathers be fathers mothers be mothers and both know your children need each one of you and remember, in times of conflict, the love that brought you together and created those who depend on your love and care.
That in the middle of the ‘I need’s’, ‘I want’s’, ‘Can I have’s’ are little boys washed ashore, dead, when all they were looking for was the life most of us have. That there are no borders for those little boys nor should there ever be.
That we live our lives free of road rage, bullying, pettiness, violence, gossip, back stabbing, avarice, ego, and replace those with compassion and empathy.
That we understand laughter is the best medicine.
That we protect our air, trees and water.
That we have faith in humanity, in human potential, and most of all, in the power of our imaginations.
I hope this letter reaches you before you head out on Christmas Eve and use your magic and head-of-the-curve technology to visit over 150 million houses overnight, delivering presents to over 2.1 billion children, knowing exactly who is on your naughty and nice list.
This letter might seem strange, shocking, even un-Christmas-like, but I want you to think about it.
Please do not deliver presents this year. Not the kind that are found in stockings and under the tree, to be played with, built, ridden on, viewed, eaten, smelled, or collected.
What we need this year, the world, is something that will require all your infinite magic and all your miracles and most importantly, all your love for the children in our world.
I really think everyone will opt out of receiving individual gifts this year in favour of the following list.
For all the sick children in the world, those whose lives will be cut short by illness, accident, crime, nature, please make sure that the North Pole exists in Heaven, so their souls can come to you and spend the day, where they will have a sense of the divine, a hint of the beyond, a whiff of the transcendent, where everything they imagined is real, enchanting, sacred, and wondrous. Where the joy felt by little boys and little girls on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is felt in their hearts for eternity.
That the joy and innocence and wonder find again those whose goals have become to terrorize our world, and that their lives are rewound to their infancy or childhood where they found security and happiness from their mother’s touch, where they played and sang and laughed, felt hope and playfulness and always, love, never hate, and ensure their lives go in a direction where they are not corrupted by evil and violence in the name of religion or culture or race or Holy Wars.
And while you are using your magic to rewind lives to do-overs, give that gift to ensure the addicted do not take the first drink, hit, snort, or shoot up and if it’s too late, that we embrace them in their pain and trauma and treat them for their sickness and not their criminality.
And finally, before you return to a forward motion, rewind the cycles of child abuse that impact too many, so that innocence is preserved and the cycle is no more.
That the world understands perversity and molestation, rape and pedophilia are not acts that remain isolated to one time and that those afflicted with the desire to harm and hurt and behave towards others only to satisfy themselves cannot be rehabilitated and should not be released back into our communities.
That the rich embrace giving, benevolence, and value relationships over acquisitions and simplicity over excess.
That people understand we are all the same no matter what color we are, no matter what our vocation is, whether we wear blue collars, white collars, or no collars, whether we have a home or not, whether we are fat or thin, disfigured or beautiful, and it doesn’t matter what gender we are, what gender we choose to be, who we choose to love, or, who we choose to worship, all that matters is we all practice the Golden Rule and hold that as most precious in defining how we live.
That Bibles are not thumped and every scripture or sacred text is not used to promote intolerance and hate.
That everyone finds something to have faith in, and even atheists feel the possibilities of the eternal, and sceptics and agnostics hear the music of ‘Silent Night’ or ‘Alleluia’ know there is something greater for them to rely on.
That we understand all animals are sentient beings, who have intrinsic value in their existence, life and beauty, and that they feel hurt, they love, they grieve, they feel sadness, fear, and joy, and they don’t want to fight nor should they be made to for sport and money. They do not want their babies to be taken away or to be butchered nor should they experience the terror of a kill floor or the trauma of abuse.
That minimum wage doesn’t mean minimum respect.
That we know, we believe, that when we talk to our loved ones in Heaven, they hear us.
That we take the politics out of leadership, the worship away from celebrities, and the sides out of marriage and those vows, our covenants to one another are cherished and remembered especially when life together gets difficult. And if they must be broken, that is done with dignity, sacrifice and respect.
That every person has four walls and a roof to call their own and if not , we who do help them get theirs without delay.
That every person has access to clean water, nutrition, and medicine.
That we all practice forgiveness.
That veterans are honoured at all times and we strive to send no one in their place.
That sons and daughters honour their mothers and fathers and hold sacred their family unit, the one they came from, and that they try on the shoes walked in by their parents, and are humble for it. That people realize estrangement breaks hearts and crushes souls and the collateral damage robs children of their heritage. Love and forgiveness trumps hate and grudges, every time.
That fathers be fathers mothers be mothers and both know your children need each one of you and remember, in times of conflict, the love that brought you together and created those who depend on your love and care.
That in the middle of the ‘I need’s’, ‘I want’s’, ‘Can I have’s’ are little boys washed ashore, dead, when all they were looking for was the life most of us have. That there are no borders for those little boys nor should there ever be.
That we live our lives free of road rage, bullying, pettiness, violence, gossip, back stabbing, avarice, ego, and replace those with compassion and empathy.
That we understand laughter is the best medicine.
That we protect our air, trees and water.
That we have faith in humanity, in human potential, and most of all, in the power of our imaginations.
And finally, for my Christian friends, many of us have lost the miracle of the birth of a baby boy in Bethlehem amid the crowded store aisles, in the tinsel and wrapping paper, in the baking and decorating, and we forget that it all started in a tiny little town, and the simple cries of a newborn baby, in a manger, in a stable, with our Messiah. And He brought some miracles to us from the Kingdom of God.
That we all have hope and courage despite the evil in the world and good will come one day, hope for redemption, justice and true happiness.
Please Santa, if you can grant these wishes, we can skip the rest and be grateful for it.
Signed: Sian Thomson on behalf of all the mothers who worry for our children and their future.
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