Holiday Stress
In The Santa Clause III: The Escape Clause, former ordinary guy Scott Calvin has become firmly established as the new Santa Claus. But the holiday stress has become too much for him. Between managing his high-pressure job and assisting his wife, Carol, with her first pregnancy, he’s got way too much to handle.
Especially when his job includes mentoring the dangerous saboteur, Jack Frost, and helping Carol means inviting her critical parents up to the North Pole for the holidays. At the same time, Santa and his elves must pretend he’s a toymaker in Canada, to keep the secret of Santa Claus safe from outsiders like Carol’s parents.
Chaos ensues, and Santa doesn’t realize that Jack Frost is behind a lot of it, still sabotaging Christmas instead of mending his ways. Before long, Santa’s busy schedule and multiple problems in his workshop make it nearly impossible for him to spend any time with his family. And his in-laws make certain he knows it.
In despair, Santa admits privately to Frost that sometimes he wishes he had never become Santa. Then he gets his wish. He goes back to being plain old Scott Calvin, a self-absorbed, callous businessman who has completely cut himself off from his family. He becomes the very thing his in-laws believed him to be.
Scott makes his way to the North Pole, which Jack Frost – as the new Santa – has turned into an expensive commercial theme park. There he urges children and their parents to spend big or go home, convincing customers that Christmas is all about the spirit of getting, not giving.
Fortunately, Scott manages to trick Frost into surrendering his claim as Santa, sending them both back to the North Pole. Resuming his rightful role as Santa, Scott returns to Carol and her parents to restore their family time together. He explains that they simply ticked each other off, like many people do over the holidays. But they can still enjoy spending time together by remembering they’re a family.
To demonstrate this, he reveals the secret they’ve been keeping from Carol’s parents: that he is, in fact, Santa Claus, and wants to include them as part of his extended family.
Maybe you’ve felt that same stress at holiday get-togethers. Maybe you’re dreading the next one.
But here’s something I’ve learned: it’s not about the salt. At family reunions, when someone asks their sister to pass the salt, but she doesn’t hear him and keeps talking to their mother, he asks for it again, twice. Then he suddenly explodes at her for refusing to pass the salt, because she’s too self-absorbed, like always.
It’s not actually about the salt. It’s about all the things that have happened over the years that have built up anger and resentment. All that tension is finally unleashed in an extreme reaction to someone not passing the salt.
This season, let it just be about the salt. Don’t treat little annoyances as big excuses to fight with each other. Shrug off the past hurts and offenses, just for a few hours. And maybe focus on the things you enjoy about one another instead.
It could make the holidays go a lot smoother, as well as any time you spend together afterward. It might even be the first step toward healing some of those broken relationships.
Have safe holidays and keep believing!
