Is There Really a Santa Claus?

December 1984

This article is adapted from one originally written by Rick Bolster for The Libertarian, published by the Libertarian Foundation in December 1978.

Virginia, that is a tricky question.

For the first few years of life we are caught up with the idea of a chubby, benevolent man from the North who watches our every move and if we are good brings us lots of goodies at Christmas. But around five or six we start to lose our innocence and begin to question some of the untouchable myths surrounding the generous northerner. Going up and down chimneys, flying reindeer, little elves who make toys out of ice and snow. Really! Do you take us for children? No, the whole story about a man who bestows wealth upon the world once a year defies all laws of economics, physics, and just common sense. Santa Claus simply couldn't exist.

But I said this is a tricky question. And it is. It seems when people reach the age of majority and can vote, they once again believe in Santa Claus. But feeling sophisticated far beyond their growth, which stopped at age five or six, they want a sophisticated Santa. And one who brings sophisticated gifts. No fire engines please! So they play a game called 'government'.

Some of their peers, whose intellectual growth stopped at age two or three, get together every 4 or 5 years and promise the other players as many free and outlandish gifts as possible. Then the people vote for the person promising the most believable gifts. The socialist Santa seldom wins because of his tendency to go overboard with his promises. The conservative Santa seldom wins because of his inherent stinginess. The liberal Santa usually wins because his promises are just right, and perhaps because his colour reminds us of the pretty suit our earlier Santa wore.

Now just why, Virginia, grown men and women believe that anyone can deliver something for nothing escapes us. But they do. Perhaps they wish to return to life at age 5 when everything was provided free by their parents or by Santa. Perhaps they think that we can all become better off by picking each others' pocket (perhaps hey think no one will pick their pocket). Whatever their thinking is, they are quickly finding out the first law of economics: nothing can be given away which is not first produced.

And slowly, but with definite certainty, they are coming to realize that they are the ones who did the producing all along. The last time everyone played the game, they threw out the liberal Santa because they discovered that they were being made to pay for all of Santa's goodies of years gone by. Those three wise men from the east - Brian, John and Ed, are not Santas at all. They are only glorified tax collectors caught up in a year-long Christmas spirit - with your money and mine. Soon all of us who have reached childhood's end will come to our senses and dismiss our elderly Santa Clauses. Then we can restore the spirit of Santa to our children and get on with living our lives in a world that requires that all of us look after ourselves.