A just transition for Santa - sustainable Christmas's

Sustainable Christmas

Spoiler alert “”” Santa’s not real! Yes, I was saddened when my big sister told me that, but she felt I deserved to know the truth! If he’s not real then who or what is he? What is the truth? and why do we find it acceptable to deceive and tell children lies, surely; this is setting a bad example to the next generation, or are we in general a bunch of deceitful liars indoctrinating the next generation into also being greedy consumerist liars?

Firstly, where did he come from? 2nd spoiler alert it wasn’t the north pole!( lets not discuss global ice loss polar bears and pole disinformation here) There’s a massive difference between father Christmas and Santa Claus – especially! in England (not Scotland as historically Christmas as we now know it, was never celebrated in Scotland) Father Christmas in England was based on - an English a pre Christianity Pagan who was robe`d in a green hooded cloak, wearing a wreath of Holly or mistletoe who would go around, lifting people’s spirits during the bleakest time of year, telling people the winter solstice was past we were heading for spring now, remember this was Pre Christian and not to be confused with father time, when the kingdom of England became part of the holy roman Christian empire, the church of England dressed the holy roman empires Christian Saint Nicholas in traditional green and white! then in 1931 a well-known multi conglomerate consumerist product transformed the English Christian version of Christmas into a commercial version, this was a sort of Charles dickens Christmas carol novella sort of Christmas, when good Christian people that had something to give were encouraged into being charitable to those that had not, ( think of Ebeneezer scrooges exploited worker - bob Cratchits son tiny Tim) When advertising and marketing arrived into this Christian midwinter festival, It grew into the world’s biggest ever consumerist fest, when father Christmas transformed into Santa ( who must be the most successful salesman of all time) Christmas became Santa is now a mega wealthy shareholder capitalist mass consumerist, Santa is very big business! he is still growing now to this day – BUT; into something that’s literally choking the planet, it’s unsustainable; truly it must be time now, that we drew it back to the original concept of looking after those in need of some winter/fuel/warmth/ sustenance/ care/shelter/love/peace! (we are running out of time) the green father time was for giving people hope that winter was now starting to end - the winter solstice has passed, there was signs in nature of spring coming soon, there was hopefully enough winter fuel left to stop people suffering through a whole winter season, think of the good Christian king Wenceslas taking pity on a peasant gathering winter fuel, the kings these days are doing the exact opposite they are stealing the peasantry’s winter fuel! originally it wasn’t only that - Christmas was not celebrated in Scotland, it was actually illegal to celebrate Christmas in a Presbyterian Society! yuletide celebrations were basically cancelled because the Church of Scotland associated them with the extravagant celebrations of the roman Catholic Church, The Scot’s kirks of yester year would not think of Santa as nice but extremely naughty, the gluttonous sinner would; likely have been burned at the stake for crimes against humanity! And worshipping false prophet’s (or is that profits) when Christmas became illegal in Scotland the midwinter festival was eventually transitioned! (justly over time) Or - moved forward to New Year’s Day, transitioning much more into a sort of father time celebration! Without the bearded fella who adorns the weather vane at lord’s cricket ground, Scottish mid-winter festivals were all about drinking dancing and wishing people health and happiness for the new year, as Rabbie burns would say fir auld lang syne

it was not until 1958 that Christmas became a holiday then transitioned into - A consumerist Christmas in Scotland, by that time Scotland had culturally transitioned into a British society in both kirk and governance, crass commercialization has now taken over globally! (even here in a once presbyterian Scotland), previous to 1958, The people of Scotland celebrated new year as their midwinter festival, households would share lumps of coal for the fire and shortbread for food, then have a wee dram with a song and dance to celebrate the coming off spring, the successful end of one year and the beginning of the next, It’s supposed to be a birthday celebration for Christ the redeemer, it’s now looking like we will need to turn the Nazarenes birthday into a festival of redemption, because we have been stealing our children’s future, Final spoiler alert - The gluttonous consumerist Santa does not! have – the children’s health safety or environment at his heart, he only cares about the massive amounts of money he makes from the exploitation of workers and resources, (a sinful elf & safety record) now is the time for not only my own transition but - my friends! My family! my communities, and others communities globally, this can be a just and fair transition for everyone, except -the multi conglomerates that drive mass consumerist waste and pollution, those anti-Christian gluttonous sinners will be getting a bag of ashes from me next year! That’s if the whole world doesn’t turn into one big sack of ashes by next year

A JUST TRANSITION FOR SANTA Should Santa be given the sack? (pun intended) over the last three years, I have done a lot of liaisons with unions for friends of the earth and other groups, to get the message of a just transition for workers in industry, it’s extremely difficult to get the message over to socialists or trade unionists who want to look after jobs, that the transition is coming whether they like it or not! There will be a transition or transformation for Santa! personally, this Scotsman wants to - take it back to a pagan natural celebration of the natural world, let’s give people hope now - that when spring arrives nature will recover, lets gift each other and our communities with trees seeds and hopes for peace love and kindness in the future, I was not fully prepared for my own personal transition away from a consumer fest Christmas this year, But; I was much better prepared than most people that I know! next year - I shall have a list ready for the end of November,on how to make christmas sustainable I’m making my list; I’m checking it twice! that red Santa’s naughty the green Santa’s going to be nice if we dont change over to a green santa soon, then the red santa will only be delivering sacks of gold to super yachts and survival bunkers

Kenny