This Santa Belongs On The Naughty List

I miss the days when kids could go maskless to see Santa at the mall, and when they told him what they want, he would nod without injecting his opinion.

Long gone are those days because, now, even Santa has a political agenda this Christmas season. 

This past week, a video went viral of a 4-year-old boy telling Santa he wants a Nerf gun—Santa’s response was an immediate, “No, no guns!” The boy then clarified that he had asked for a Nerf gun.

You know—the toy gun that shoots out Styrofoam. Santa responds with, “Nope, not even a Nerf gun.” Afterwards, the boy left crying because Santa just crushed his dreams, and his mom held him in an attempt to comfort him.

Bah, humbug. Am I right?

Next thing you know, they will be trying to ban water guns.

The Mall-Santa-Who-Stole-Christmas clarified to the bawling child that his Dad could get a Nerf gun for him, but Santa could not.

*Eyeroll*

Apparently, it is no longer up to parents to decide what toy is an appropriate toy for Santa to bring. Now, that is the job of random mall workers.

Call me crazy, but Santa isn’t paid to be politically correct or to push an anti-gun agenda on children as he dissuades them from asking for their favorite toy for Christmas. He’s paid to nod yes and smile for pictures.

I can understand looking at the parents for confirmation that a toy is realistic or appropriate. Santa can’t promise every child a pony, but telling a crying child no to a present as the mother consoles them is reaching new heights of Grinch-like behavior.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the end to the story.

Later in the week, the mall sent a “new and improved” Santa out to the little boy’s home to deliver him a Nerf gun. The old Santa resigned, and a little bit of my Christmas cheer was restored.

Now I am less concerned about this Santa and his “War on Toys” than the larger cultural issue that we are facing.

Lately, it seems everybody has an agenda to push upon our children. They are being conditioned by their schools, the media, and now even Santa to believe individual rights are not inherent and too dangerous.

We see evidence of this in our entertainment, in the media when they use terms like “dangerous” when describing gun owners or “selfish” for people who refuse to wear masks.

Society has moved so far away from individual liberties and personal responsibility that mall Santas feel the need to police what Christmas gifts children ask for. If these formerly benign influences are now using their soapboxes to pressure children into different views, what will you do to counteract these trends when it comes to your children?

In The Tuttle Twins Learn About the Law, kids are introduced to the concept of individual rights and where they come from. Readers learn that individual rights come with personal responsibility, and are an essential part of a free and open society. They’ll also learn that these rights do not come from large men in suits on Capitol Hill or the North Pole.

I have one  final thing to say about this situation… Come and Take It, Santa!

—Connor