Christmas Greed.

It’s pretty funny to watch little kids as they slowly phase into the reality that the world’s out there to get them. Their parents won’t protect them forever, they won’t always be dependant. For the first time in their short lives, they are beginning to regret things, learning some common sense concepts, around third or fourth grade children develop personalities.

Because it’s around that time of year, I see a lot of children subjecting their parents to something that looks a lot like manipulation to me. I’ve heard it all while browsing local stores. “Not to be greedy, but I’d really like this toy for Christmas mommy,” the kid might say, followed by “and this toy, and this, and this,” etc. etc. When I see things like this, it churns my stomach just a little bit. Not because of the child; they surely haven’t done anything too wrong just yet, but the way the parents will just cave in to their son or daughter’s every whim in unbelievable!

This reminds me of the other day when I saw a little girl bickering with her mother about taking her teenage brother’s fruit snacks. Trying to teach the girl that just because she had something in her possession it didn’t mean that it was hers, the mother told her son repeatedly to tell the little girl that the fruit snacks were his, and that she couldn’t have them. At first the girl seemed content with his answer, but she must’ve been the most deceptive three-or-four year old I’ve ever seen because within seconds, she snatched the bag of fruit snacks, and was off with them, running away from her family. Now of course, this shouldn’t just be about the little girl’s greed and want for the fruit snacks. Mothers’ in particular seem to be looking out for their daughters’ best interest, or at least more-so than their son’s. But in this case (in particular) the boy’s face was spilled with red the whole time, bursting at the seams in embarrassment that he had to speak so loudly, scolding his sister for something that she eventually would receive no matter how well they tried to control her.

But that wasn’t the event that triggered the writing of this essay. In fact, there’s a combination of reasons that I am writing this. Firstly, I just want to remind people that Christmas isn’t all about the gifts. Nor is it about the Eggnog, snow isn’t essential for a good Christmas neither. For those whom do celebrate it, perhaps it should be about Jesus. But that will never become the focus of this jaded holiday (aside from within the most devote of Christian families). I mean, Jesus Christ, people! More than any other holiday, December’s Twenty-Fifth day has been annually commercialized to the point where our stores are decorating far before Thanksgiving even comes--don’t you think they should at the very least wait until winter begins to start dressing up their shelves, and distributing Santa hats? The most irritating Christmas trait of all is watched parents succumb to their children’s greed, I hate watching people manipulate others; and this is prime season for some dramatic parent-manipulation for kids of all ages.

My brother is friends with a lot of kids who get everything they want. My brother is as well; a kid who gets everything. Some rotten things I’ve watched these children do this year have proven all littleons (thank you Golding, for the fascinating word-choice) to have the case of a long-thought curable disease called “The Gimmies”. Unfortunately though, recent studies have proven “The Gimmies” to be incurable; teach your children manners, make sure they respect you, never spoil them, and never letting them gorge (on anything) are all important aspects of instilling a single idea into their minds. This could be life changing for the both of you, if your child can still learn from their mistakes, and haven’t gotten too caught up in their hunger for wanting more of-everything. The same eagerness I have just brought up remains an attribute to every one of my brother’s friends’ personalities. I caught them (two brothers) once sneaking into their garage, and slitting a hole in their Christmas wrapping just so they could take a jealous peak and find out what gift-item they didn’t deserve, that their parents’ had for whatever reason chose to tide them over with. I feel like some kids are spoiled because they’re already beyond means of recovering. Rehabilitation clinics may be the best bet, but it’s unlikely that your children will fit in with many of the clinic’s former heroin addicts, and gang members.

Although I do feel like everyone around me eats in excess, I’ve found that there are ways to control what some children eat. If you give them something to do, they’ll soon realize (although they may not always admit it) that they were either eating or craving to eat because they were bored. What does this have to do with greed? Have you seen an American serving size-compared to say, the serving size of any foreign foods? That gluttony may instill a good sense of want in a child, and it may be easy enough to regress into patterns where they realize that if they can have food in excess, they can have everything in excess. Thankfully, my Stepmom provided a good example for this topic only a week ago; when we were coming back over the boarder, from Victoria, Canada. We had accidentally taken a bunch of apples that we had purchased over in Canada with us on the car, and hadn’t intended on the search officers finding them (even if it would’ve been found with minor consequences, or not found at all). My sister was apparently craving the apples, and started throwing a tremendous fit because of it. Being the child she is, this fit didn’t stop for the longest time. Again, it may seem like I’m slowly meandering away from talking about greed-so bare with me, and try to see the connections, the best you can. In response to my sister’s whining, my Stepmom opened up her bottled water, and poured it all over my sister’s head. Well as you might imagine, this didn’t go over too well; and there was hell to pay for it. Instead of pulling together the parenting ability required to take proper care of her child, my Stepmom greedily soaked my sister, hoping she’d be quite. Soon after we crossed the boarder, they were both (my sister and my Stepmom) relatively quite once they each held an apple in hand. Like mother like daughter. Greed may not run in the family; but it sure does reflect off of what a child’s taught early on, methinks.

Temper tantrums, headaches, scuffling, gift-wrap, Jesus, and Hanukah candles abound, the Christmas season has always been my favorite time of the year. Flashbacks to late 1999 arise. South Park's on TV and the episode airing just so happens to be "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics", which has all of the South Park characters doing songs via Disney cartoon-musical style, and in the end, everyone comes to the conclusion that Christmas is all about the presents. South Park may not always be politically correct, it may be sometimes naughty, and is never nice, but there’s one thing the show does extremely well. South Park focuses on political norms, and faults and exploitations in society. If you look at the episode from this angle you see that the overblown South Park characters are actually able to create a moral through their sarcasm. What the message is, is that: Dancing Jesus Dolls will never arise from your stockings Christmas morning; your parents plan on saving Jesus so he can pop out of your birthday cake.