Is Santa a way to produce shame?

This past Christmas I spent in England and I spent one night watching an animated movie called “The Polar Express.” It was an interesting perception on Christmas and Santa Claus and all his helpers. One room at the North Pole had a few elves in it and all they did was sit there and wait for the alarms to sound for a child who was misbehaving.

Or as the song says with Santa checking his list... he's checking it twice, finding out who is naughty and nice. As I watched the movie, I went back to my childhood and how that song shamed me as soon as December rolled around.

All year, I would be a terror and not worry about Santa or Christmas gifts, yet as soon as December rolled around I was the best kid any parent would want. I was a great student... never missed school and did all my homework.

As Christmas Day got closer and closer I began to doubt whether I would get any gifts at all because of how bad I was leading up to December. Surely those elves had all sorts of notes on me and everything I did.

Even with all my doubts I tried to rectify a year of being bad by being good for one month. Then when Christmas morning rolled around and I had all these gifts I was so thankful for Santa giving me a second chance.

Then as the gratitude disappeared I began to think that Santa was just gullible and naive and the new year produce an even more horrible me.

Christmas songs that shame and frightened little kids do nothing for the spirit of Christmas. If love is unconditional why do we need songs referring to being naughty or nice? It serves no purpose except to scare kids and then it makes them manipulative with their actions after the holidays.

Face it, all kids are nice around Christmas... and shouldn't Christmas be celebrated everyday, at least the spirit of Christmas?