A good friend of mine posted two photos on the Facebook
and called them “before and after dressing up as Santa clause.” The Santa Clause mask did not just hide my
friends but it destroyed his total personality. I am not sure if such a killer
mask is necessary at all.
Believe me, the way we dress up Santa Clause in India is absurd. In India Santa does not sit in a mall and just pose for photographs with kids on his lap. You pull a wornout crumpled red robe and a crushed pink mask out of a storage box, put it on a guy and drag him around for your carol rounds. That poor guy banking on his anonimity behind the mask shamelessly dances for all Christmas carols from “Silent night” to Indian Christian lyrics! Besides, he scares todlers at every house with his horrible mask and whiskers! Sometimes I wonder if we have reduced Santa Clause, very affectionately referred to in Tamil as “Christmas thatha(grandpa)” into a circus clown!
Believe me, the way we dress up Santa Clause in India is absurd. In India Santa does not sit in a mall and just pose for photographs with kids on his lap. You pull a wornout crumpled red robe and a crushed pink mask out of a storage box, put it on a guy and drag him around for your carol rounds. That poor guy banking on his anonimity behind the mask shamelessly dances for all Christmas carols from “Silent night” to Indian Christian lyrics! Besides, he scares todlers at every house with his horrible mask and whiskers! Sometimes I wonder if we have reduced Santa Clause, very affectionately referred to in Tamil as “Christmas thatha(grandpa)” into a circus clown!
When I
was a little kid in Karur, my favorite Christmas father was Solomon Thatha.
With his deep voice, bushy moustache and robust physique he was a lovable
personality in 1950s. On the day of the Christmas tree function, he would
appear in an immaculate white dress with a turban and would give us the
Christmas gifts and great fun and joy. (Nobody worried about the absence of the
white beard!) During the following few months, we would run after him calling
out “Thatha, Thatha” to get an affectionate pat on the head!
We
usually celebrate the presence of the elderly in our churches and take efforts
to honor them on special occasions. I think it is a good idea, though it sounds
a little idiotic, to invite one of them as the chief guest of the Christmas
tree function and make him the Santa Clause of this year. If that senior person
is game for it, give him a slight make-up! But please….. pl..ea...se.. do not
hide him with one of those pink mask with white beard.
dear ayya .. that is such a wonderful post. I am a sunday school teacher in Chennai and I am 40 years old. with every Christmas coming near .. it tortures me that we have to have a santa .. who does not do a thing to bring home the message of Christmas. And as you have so rightly pointed - killing the person with a mask and stinky costume. I hope and pray that we would do as you have suggested in the post - God willing.
ReplyDelete