Occupy North Pole

I've been going to the mall a lot this past week and, for the life of me I can't understand going broke for the sake of Santa Claus. I understand wanting to keep the magic of Christmas alive, but I personally think that Santa is the perfect scapegoat for keeping your financial sanity this Christmas.

Feel free to copy the note and apply it to your own child. I plan to print mine out in calligraphic font.

Dear (child's name)
I can only give you one toy this year. I'm sorry that I couldn't do better. Just know that you have two parents who love you and vow to put your needs before their own and that is something many kids do not have. You've been so good this year and you deserve an explanation: This has been a challenging year for me both mentally and financially. After that Amnesty International piece about sweatshops, things just went downhill. We lost a lot of elves to the Occupy movement, some just quit out of principal. Oil prices went up when the Libya conflict began and it made importing goods from overseas just too expensive. In the end, it was PETA that did us in. As I've said on record many times, the reindeer never submitted a formal complaint about the working conditions before! With so many things eating into the bottom line, it was inevitable that the North Pole would be forced into bankruptcy protection. The best I could do was smuggle out gifts from the estate to give to kids who really deserve them. You are one such child. While I remain optimistic that we'll be around next year, just in case, I want you to wish you Merry Christmas for all future Christmases.

With Love,
Santa