amaryllis

                                                                                                December 2009

It will only happen once. I have one of those horrid plastic Santas planted in front of my house. I had vowed that it would never happen to me. Classy little white lights in the window, yes. A plastic Santa, definitely not! But then, that’s what I said about having a pet dog. Mango, a golden lab mix who belongs to our neighbour, enjoys her regular walkies with us and a good supply of doggy treats at our house.

I picked up a cast-off plastic Santa lawn ornament with thoughts of donating it to a one-time pre-Christmas event sponsored by our church. The chilli give-away on the streets of Ottawa was a success as I (along with others) cooked up two batches of the stew in our extra large crock pots. The remains ended up going to a downtown shelter for the homeless. But what about the orphan Santa ornament?

Things didn’t quite work out as expected. The plastic Santa didn’t end up at the legion hall. He ended up sitting in our living room as an unwanted guest. The kids decided that they couldn’t possibly part with a scratched up Santa Claus with adorable plastic puppies tumbling about his black boots – At least not this Christmas. Maybe the time will come in future years when we can quietly make the old elf disappear into a more permanent state of retirement.

Frankly, he was kind of an embarrassment. The electric light bulb inside Santa short circuited after a couple of nights of outdoor display. A battery operated light stubbornly refused to fit through the hole in Santa’s back. So there he sat, unlit and awkward in our hallway to greet those who knocked upon our door. If only we weren’t so conscious these days of filling up the landfill with non-biodegrading polymers!

One of the children who came to visit with our daughter watched a new Christmas video about the historical St. Nicholas. The Veggie Tales story recounts the tale in “an imaginative fashion”. Larry the cucumber keeps trying to inject the more familiar commercialized version of the modern Santa Claus into the story of St. Nicholas. Somehow, it just doesn’t seem to fit. The red Santa suit keeps falling off the simpler, older story of a man who discovers the joy of giving as a year-round lifestyle that is bound up with the heart of Christ.

The tawdry plasticized Santa Claus is now back outside with a modest battery operated lamp installed in his innards. Our Santa might not be much competition for some of the more sophisticated or overblown replicas we see around the neighbourhood. (The new thing is full-sized blow-up Santa puppets.) Nonetheless, those who really know us know that there is more to our household than first meets the eye.

Our family is far from perfect. We have worn-off paint and a few things about us that really don’t work right. But hopefully, some people see that there is a light within that is genuine.

From our household to yours, wishing you a blessed Christmas season,

The Savards