Main Meal: Jesus. Dessert: Santa.

Let’s see if I can remember what the priest said at Mass. This is, after all, one of the bigger religious holydays in the Christian church, so let’s try.

Those who tend not to be religious can skip to the next entry; those who tend not to read religious blogs can also keep going. I can’t take attendance and, besides, I’m not all that hot into writing about this stuff. But the guy kept me awake which, in itself, it a pretty good thing. I could fall asleep during the Second Coming.

Anyway, he got talking about Santa Claus because there were a lot of kids in the crowd and that’s not the time to tell them that, basically, the old guy was re-invented decades ago in his present form to sell Coca-Cola. St. Nick was the original guy who dumped money into girls’ homes, but that was to keep them from being whores. Hey.

So there he was, walking the tightrope without a net, telling us Jesus is the main meal at this holiday time, coming into our lives to pre-forgive our sins. None of this sloppy “Jesus is the reason for the season” stuff, but simply that we need him to make it through life and to know we will make it at the end.

Then the Santa stuff: He gives us the immediate reward, once yearly, of toys and all sorts of things we need. It’s dessert. It’s fluff. It’s a nice little treat for good little girls and boys, good little husbands and wives, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. Just be sure you don’t wake up and find coal in your stocking.