Fourth of July is a great holiday filled with many joys.  Campfires, marshmallows, hotdogs, and fireworks give us these joys.  Today we celebrated our love for America’s independence and our dislike for how greed has taken over the holiday season in December.  We protested by burning a wooden placard of Santa.  As it went up in flames the mood around the fire was different for each person.  One person expressed their hatred for Santa.  Another person expressed shock, and I silently thought about how it expressed my distaste for how America handles the holiday season.

I may not be that old; but, I remember family get togethers and the fun everyone had around the dinner table.  Grandma and my aunt cooked a huge dinner and people brought potluck dishes to fill in the gaps.  Cousins would gather together in the game room and enjoy each others company while the adults talked about grown up things in the living room.

Today the family dwindles each year.  Less people attend the gatherings.  There is less contact between the family throughout the year.  I see this happening in my friends families as well.  They complain about the same issues, less family, smaller get togethers, fewer family times throughout the year.

By the time the December holiday comes around the family feels stretched.  Shopping takes it’s toll, prices on food going up, fuel prices high, expectations of the perfect gift stressing people out.  The stress of financial burden may be one reason people are unable to celebrate the holiday as freely as they used too.

Corporate America pushes products constantly, always urging Americans to pursue the better gift.  Stores are pushed to put holiday products on the shelf months earlier each year.  One store I recently visited informed me they put holiday products out starting late August.

Burning Santa is a small act and no one will know about it except the people who might read this blog or see the post on my multimedia page.  However, what burning Santa means to me is rebellion against what the December holiday is today and remembering what the December holiday used to be to me.  By burning Santa we stood up and said that we dislike the corporate ties to the December holidays and how they have negativity affected our family gatherings.

I believe the person who was shocked that we burned Santa couldn’t believe that we would be so bold to burn a holiday icon that means so much to so many people.  They were concerned about us committing a social taboo.  Unlike them I believe the statement outweighs the taboo, or looking at it the another way, the taboo becomes the perfect statement.  So by burning Santa our statement screams loudly and hopefully here someone might hear the statement that I made, and view the statements they made.