Just how tech savvy is Santa anyway? Does the big guy in the red suit really communicate via a small smartphone? Are traditional paper letters to the North Pole on the brink of extinction? Are PDFs and instant messages the preferred method of sending one’s Christmas wish list to Jolly ol’ St. Nick?
Say it ain’t so.
Call me old-fashioned, stodgy, or a stalwart traditionalist, but I’m not a fan of the litany of new high-tech ways kids can communicate with Santa Claus. I don’t want my daughter emailing Santa, nor do I want her faxing, tweeting, Skyping, or texting the plump present giver. If she wants to communicate with Kris Kringle she can do it the same way it has been done since the dawn of time: with crayons and construction paper.
I say, “Bah! Humbug!” to the Santa websites saturating the Internet right now. Whereas it is a sign of the times that kids can now communicate electronically with the Christmas Claus, do parents really have to embrace all this modern day high-tech Santa mumbo jumbo? Does my kid really need to spend more time on the computer checking and re-checking Santa’s virtual “nice” list to see if she’s still in the running for the bike she wants? Does she really need to view Santa’s photo album or play Christmas video games?
And how is all this techno-wizardry affecting the Santa threat?
Speaking of techno-wizardry and the death of holiday traditions let me take a moment to rant about online Christmas tree shopping.
Remember the good old days when the family loaded up in the station wagon and headed out to the nearest Christmas tree lot, or even to a tree farm, to select a special spruce to display in the living room?
Well, apparently, that tradition is on the Christmas chopping block as well… thanks to the Internet.
Choosing a Christmas tree together as a family is a tradition that most of us have grown to cherish, but it may soon fall if national retailers, such as Target and Costco get their way. The discount stores are now selling live Christmas trees online, thus allowing moms and dads to choose a tree from the comfort of their own bed.
I suppose families could keep the tradition alive by gathering around a warm computer monitor and selecting a tree together online or they could simply buck the trend and head out to the country to chop down their own Fraser Fir. Still, the convenience of ordering a tree online may be too much for some to resist, and as time goes by I’d expect more Internet fans will hop on the bandwagon.
Will you be one of them or do you plan to keep it real for your kids by sticking with tried and true tech-free Christmas traditions?
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