Yes, Virginia ...

Excerpted From CNN.Com ...

Chris Rock show gives away Santa secret

'Everybody Hates Chris' earns a few complaints

NEW YORK (AP) -- Yes, Chris Rock, there is a Santa Claus.

Parents with young children who happened to watch "Everybody Hates Chris" in the past week had some explaining to do when the character of Rock's brother suddenly told his younger sister that Santa doesn't exist."Everybody knows there's no Santa Claus," Drew said to Tonya on the UPN sitcom. "Come here, let me show you something. I'm taking you to the toys ... Santa doesn't come down the chimney. We don't even have a chimney. We have radiators."

Disillusioned, she stomps out of the room.

But wait. It gets worse.

Put on the spot, Tonya's dad Julius tells her the Easter bunny and tooth fairy don't exist, either."Somebody better give me my teeth back," the girl fumes.

A blindsided UPN received "a handful" of complaints about the Santa expose on its sitcom based loosely on comic Rock's life growing up in Brooklyn, a spokeswoman said.

………………………………………………………………..

On the show, young Tonya becomes a lot more cynical. Her mother explains that Santa Claus is a symbol and asks: "So you do understand?""Yeah," the girl replies. "It's OK to lie."

-----------------------------------------------

This story jumped out at me today because my seven-year-old son is at that age where the myths and legends of young childhood are to be questioned. When I tell him we should donate a toy to a local charity drive for poor kids, he asks, “Why wouldn’t Santa give a little boy or girl presents on Christmas?”

He caught me in a logical fallacy. If the toys are coming from a magical workshop at the North Pole, why is being poor a problem? He asked a similar question after watching (the absolutely marvelous) “The Polar Express”, about a magical train to Santa's workshop at he North Pole. The story featured a child from, literally, the other side of the tracks who was thrilled to get a gift from Santa. I got around that one by telling him that since the boy didn’t receive anything the –rest- of the year he was even happier to get something on Christmas.

I’m sure that deep down deep my son knows that Santa Claus isn’t real. He overheard my wife and me discussing gifts the other night and seemed happy at the news. He’s already received some gifts from friends and family, so he knows that Santa’s not an exclusive franchise. But he –wants- to believe.

After watching “The Polar Express” he wanted, nay, -insisted- that he be awarded a magical train ride too. Last year he wanted to sleep in the living room on Christmas Eve. I know it’s so he could see Santa at work. The year before he wanted to leave out another set of milk and cookies on Christmas night, to summon an immediate return visit.

My son loves magic. He loves stories about magical warriors and hidden doors to fabulous worlds. He loves magical creatures, elves and wizards and goblins. The world is just so much more dynamic, colorful and detailed when magic is factored in.

This is part of why Christmas commands such an emotional pull on us. So many holiday songs speak of going “home for the holidays.” What they’re reminding us is the time we believed in magical Christmases, before we had to grow up and it turned into worrying if our Christmas club savings account was fully stocked and post-holiday credit card bills if it wasn’t. We liked the magic.

We mere mortals just need to believe in magic. Every culture in human memory has developed a full litany of myths to give texture and meaning to their world. Some stories are political, from the mystical twins to founded Rome to George Washington and the cherry tree. We need to believe that our leaders are somehow graced by a magical touch which gave them the skills and abilities to take charge. Curiously, perhaps, even republicans and democrats (small letters) from ancient Rome to America need to believe this. (And our leaders are plumb eager to have us believe this.)

Higher up the reality ladder, we also need to believe that there’s a moral order to the universe which rewards and punishes. Out in the mysterious East, it’s generally set by our own acts. West of all that, including the Muslim world, people prefer judgment handed down by divine fiat, from Odin in Valhalla to the fiery pit reserved for Satan and his angels (including really rotten people, like that jerk who cut you off in traffic and gave you the bird).

After all, isn’t that what Santa Claus is for kids, training wheels to magical moral judgments? The fact that they take to it so easily shows that it meets a real fundamental need of the human race. We need to believe in magic.

So when my son asks me if Santa is real, I tell him, of course, but only to people who believe he’s real. That satisfies him for the most part. My allies in this are most of the cartoons he watches this time of year. Relieving doubt about Santa is a constant theme. Like good capitalists, Cartoon Network and the rest know how to find a need and fill it.