Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Against my better judgment, I tried to watch the latest 2004 "non-traditional Santa" movie -- "A Very Cool Christmas" with George Hamilton incredibly unconvincing as Santa -- on Lifetime last night. The consumerism was so over-the-top (as was the annoying acting of many supporting characters) that I began to feel physically unwell, and couldn't stick around for what would no doubt be 'A Very Valuable Lesson' learned by the image-obsessed teen girl in the last fifteen minutes of the movie (as a sop to the 'True Meaning of Christmas', after emphasizing nothing but external appearance for the first 90 minutes!).

A nauseatingly unwatchable excuse for a "holiday" movie, all in all, but it did seem to support the possible pattern I noticed in my previous entry, regarding the introduction of slimmer and younger Santa images this year. (Even the George Hamilton Santa was a "Santa-gone-a-courting", technically, since the ostensible reason for him to drop an impossible amount of weight in three weeks and lose the gray hair and whiskers and begin dressing like something out of GQ was to put 'the fire' back into his marriage to Mrs. Claus.)

Though I continue to be puzzled by the phenomenon, it occurred to me Thursday night -- while watching videotapes of fourth season episodes of due South during a Scrabble game -- that perhaps there's a precursor to the 'goofily attractive, single Santa' to be found in Benton Fraser. Think about it -- especially in the later seasons, where Fraser's abilities become positively mythic in scope! He's from the North, he's got the red coat (which he seems to wear all the time in the later seasons), and he's incredibly honest, generous, and kind. He's just replaced the flying reindeer with a lip-reading wolf.

It's just a thought . . . !