I saw the movie "Arthur Christmas" a few days back. (Edit: more like two weeks ago. This post was, remarkably, tagged 'draft' for quite a long yet definite period.)
I liked it. A new spin on the Santa story, at least new to me, it was. And the voice of Bill Nighy was no drawback. He plays an old man, as usual.
Back to the main topic: Arthur Christmas. The movie, I mean.
Spoiler alert, just to be safe.
So, the modern-day Santa operation is no longer the private affair like it used to be years and years ago, when St. Nicholas walks around all by himself. It has even progressed much more than the traditional eight reindeer-powered sleigh flying around the world in one night. Santa kept with the times. The thing is, Santa is not immortal. So when he gets old enough, he retires, just like most people in the world, and Santahood is passed on to another (in the case of the movie, to Santa's son).
Eh, I'm not that good at describing movies. The tendency to ramble is irresistible. Look at the paragraph above. The third and fourth sentences aren't really connected. Not to mention I missed the first 15 minutes or so of the movie. Go watch it, I'm not going to bore you anymore with the main plot.
What I happened to notice is that, the Santa Operation is now Santa Corporation. There are loads of elves doing the main bulk of the work of assessing children's gift preferences, manufacturing them, and delivering them on Christmas Eve. The Santa, while still delivering the gifts himself, acts more as a supervisor and manager. I'd like to say captain, like on a ship, maybe.
How many elves? I said loads. I'd even say multinational. One elf, if I remember correctly, wears a kilt, so I assume he's Scottish. There are also elves that speak in German and Indian accents, I recall. I suppose it would be very difficult trying to do the kind of work Santa does with just the native elves of North Pole.
But the point I'm trying to make is this. Christmas is no longer (if ever it was) solely a Europeans' or Westerns' holiday. Remember the Indian elf.
I am even going to suggest the preposterous: that the Indian elf might even be a Hindu elf.
And Christmas is not only for Christians.
Sure, Christians celebrate Christmas to commemorate Christ's birth. (And for those of you who try to argue "Christ was probably not even born in December!" I am going to say, "Correct. Ever heard of the saying, 'Happy belated birthday?' Doesn't really fucking matter to them, man, what the correct date is.") Why can't others celebrate Christmas for something entirely different? Tim Minchin, an atheist, likes Christmas. And there's nothing wrong with that, right?
We impose our own views on holidays. We imbue them with meaning that might not even exist at the holidays' conception. We turn every holiday into our own holiday. We make each day as holy as we want. And it is good.
And redefining a holiday's meaning to be "trying to stop people from wishing goodness on others and/or sneering at those who do" is just fucking stupid.
P.S: If you're still wondering who Tim Minchin is, here's a link to his song about Christmas. I love it.
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