2012-05-10
Explanation
This comic explores the classic childhood question "Daddy, does Santa Claus exist?" The father gives a heartfelt, philosophical answer: Santa is a "spirit of joy and an avatar of giving." He explains that every time someone steps into your life to help you, that'''s a Santa Claus; every time someone grants your heart'''s desire before you even knew what it was, that'''s a Santa Claus; and every time you see want in someone else and replace it with surplus, you'''re a Santa Claus. It'''s a genuinely touching redefinition of Santa as a metaphor for human generosity.
The child, however, takes this entirely literally and practically. "So Santa is real?" he asks, and when the father confirms "Yes. He'''s real in our hearts," the kid immediately hands over a list saying "Tell him I want a new Gamebox and all the games on this list!" The father is left staring at the list in dismay, and the final panel shows him darkly declaring "Santa Claus is dead and I killed him" -- a reference to Friedrich Nietzsche'''s famous proclamation "God is dead" from The Gay Science, applied here to the crushing of his own idealistic Santa metaphor by his child'''s materialism.
The votey panel adds another layer: someone says "Christmas is now about Jesus," and the response is a horrified "Nooooooo!" -- implying that even pivoting Christmas to its religious origins would be preferable to the father'''s existential defeat, or perhaps that the child would be equally horrified by any version of Christmas that doesn'''t involve presents.