We preach of Zion, but continue to march deeper and deeper towards Babylon.
This was the first year that across the country, Thanksgiving Day turned into a day of Shopping. Instead of Black Friday.. we now have Grey Thursday. Employees of the big department stores had to work, since the store opened for the first time for thousands and thousands of shoppers to buy gifts for Christmas right after having Thanksgiving Dinner..
I didn't write about this sooner, but I felt I still needed to post something about this. I am sure there is a huge range of opinions out there on Santa Claus. Sure he is a good-intentioned symbol of love and giving. But I have come to the conclusion that he is probably one of the biggest deceptions in this world that we tell our children. We go to great lengths to do all we can to make our children believe in Santa.( leaving behind crumbs of cookies that are left out, making reindeer tracks in the snow, etc etc) I think more effort goes into teaching our children that Santa is real than we do in teaching our children that Jesus Christ is real.
Sidenote:
It has almost been a year since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints held the red ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of their multi-billion dollar mall. On that day, the First Presidency and Presidency Bishopric along with the Utah's Governor and other high officials exclaimed, "Let's Go Shopping!".
How fitting then to build at almost the exact spot of the ribbon ceremony, a 30-foot-tall "Santa workshop" as the location for Santa Claus to welcome the children to sit on his lap. (See below middle). It was advertised in the news that Santa would magically appear on the rooftops of City Creek Center on November 15 before joining the crowds near his "Lantern cottage " where he will visit with families through December 24, 2012. (See below video).
Here is the video of Santa Claus's grand arrival to the LDS Shopping Center at City Creek.
Addendum: For those who are deaf, a "Sign Language" Santa was available at City Creek Nov. 29 from 2-6 p.m., so deaf children can visit with Santa. Also if you wanted to take pictures with Santa with your pets you could come on December 6, from 6-9 PM. Also, to make these convenient so you didn't have to stand in line, you could register at the check-in booth and then receive a text message when it was your turn. All of this information was from the City Creek Center website.
I would like to write more about this, but I think I will leave it at that for now.
