I am the Anti Santa

Everybody knows of Santa, he represents to jovial, frivolous and lighter side of Christmas. To Santa belongs joy of presents, happiness and festive good cheer.

Lucky old Santa

However like many things in this universe, various things in our lives are like coins in that they have two side, and Christmas is no different.

I am the Anti-Santa

My realm is the darker side of Christmas, the parts that are banished from Christmas feasts and tinsel covered nativity plays and party games. Those parts we would like to gloss over and ignore but can not.

Santa's day is 25 December, the day of the Anti Santa is 28 December, for the feast day for the holy innocents. It is this day, 28 December that is dedicated to remembering the slaughter of all the boys of two years and under  in Bethlehem and surrounding districts.  This brutal massacre was on the orders of King Herod as he sought to slay the Christ child, after the magi who were supposed to tell him where the Christ child was, left for their own countries a different way, after being warned in a dream. This is recorded in Matthew 2:16-18, along with the fulfilment of the prophecy in Jeremiah 31:15 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Why is this never told in school nativity plays?

Fortunately Joseph had been warned in a dream, and our Lord was taken to safety in Egypt  (Matthew 2:13-14)

But being the Anti Santa is not limited to parts of the scriptures that would upset middle class parents once a year as they watch their darlings mangle yet another school nativity.

Oh no

The Anti-Santa represents the despair and desolation made more intense by the festive season and imposed jovialities of others.

To the realm of the Anti-Santa belongs those who remember loved ones who have gone to that country, from where those who are borne to can never return, especially those who mourn the recently departed as they endure their first Yuletide separated from them. Some of these departed, may even be offspring who should have been hope for the future, cruelly snuffed out, like those who were slain by Herod's diktat.

Then there are those, who know this will be the last time before they are so separated from their loved ones or know that they will be departing for that far country..

The Anti-Santa represents those who have loved ones serving away from home, secretly worried that something might happen so they they never come home on this side of eternity, yet forbidden to show it lest it spoil some inane festivities planned by others.

Even when Grim Reaper is not involved there are those who are in destitution, possibly with families, seeing those items that clever marketing people say are a must have, which are beyond their reach. Sometimes these families in destitution have young who go hungry, like those in famine and war struck places that appear on news channels, which others may callously switch over, because it offends the spirit of jollity they wish to maintain.

Then there are those who have no home and live in the streets, sleeping in doorways, in parks or wherever they can, seeing all the bright lights of the festive season. The Anti Santa represents them as well

 Let us not forget those who have lost their livelihoods just before this seasonal time of year, sometimes because it suits someone high up in a cost cutting exercise.

There might be many other things that belongs in the realm of the Anti-Santa, such as the lonely or those who suffer depression. It is not that the Anti Santa likes these things to persist, but that they are not forgotten when Santa brings his warmth and good cheer on 25 December

I am the Anti Santa, I am tasked with looking after the darker side of Christmas, the parts that are banished from Christmas feasts and tinsel covered nativity plays and party games. As I look out at jingles and bright lights of the province of Santa, my counterpart there is one piece of music that sums the up message from the realm of the Anti Santa.

It is from the 1984 "Do they know it's Christmas" by Band-Aid

The lyrics from that song that relay a near accurate message from the realm that the Anti Santa must represent, are these:

But say a prayer, pray for the other ones. At Christmas time, it's hard, but when you're having fun, there's a world outside your window, and it's a world of dread and fear. Where the only water flowing, is a bitter sting of tears. And the Christmas bells that ring there, are the clanging chimes of doom. We'll, tonight, thank God, it's them instead of you

I am the Anti Santa and I bid you a good Christmas Tide, may you be blessed by my counterpart Santa, but please forget not those who are forced to inhabit my realm, the realm of the Anti Santa.