I went to college with Sean. I was particularly interested in asking him about Santa because Sean isn’t Christian.
What did Santa mean to you as a child?
I’m Jewish, but I wanted to see Santa, too. All my friends were. All that was on TV was Santa this and Santa that, so of course we had to do Santa. I’ve sat in the big man’s lap and asked for toys. My mom took me. I didn’t understand it all at the time.
We weren’t terribly religious. We didn’t do a lot of stuff until late when I got toward Hebrew school or was getting Bar Mitzvahed, really. But I don’t know why they did it or gave in to my demands. Guess any little kid wants toys.
Did your family celebrate Christmas?
Well yeah, in a way. I mean we didn’t have a tree, okay, but we did hang stockings a few times. So we got candy and little toys. We already had Chanukah, so we got our presents then. Santa Claus was just kind of this seasonal extra that didn’t have any specific religious meaning.
Did you tell your friends at school that Santa came to see you?
I think I must have — to fit in. You give in to peer pressure and whatnot. Everyone knew I was Jewish. There were a number of other Jewish kids in the class that I was growing up with and you kind of wanted to do what they do, but there still wasn’t enough of us to make a stand against Santa. So you just kind of rolled with it, I guess.