This time of year I find myself humming Christmas songs with my favorite being those sung by the great Nat King Cole. Today a friend shared with me his favorite Christmas tune sung by Nat King Cole, "The Little Boy That Santa Clause Forgot" My friend warned me that while the song is powerful, it was also quite sad. below are a few of the song’s lyrics:
Here is the boy that Santa forgot and goodness knows, he didn't want a lot.
In the street he envies all those lucky boys. Then wandered home to last year's broken toys. I'm sorry for that laddie. He hasn't got a daddy. The little boy that Santa forgot.
Nat King Cole recorded the song in 1953. Perhaps a more modern version of the song might be a lyric sung by the late Rapper Notorious B.I.G from the song Juicy.
We used to fuss when the landlord dissed us, no heat, wonder why Christmas missed us?
The lyrics of both songs makes me reflect on my early childhood when we were a double income family with both parents at home. Christmas was abundant! In separation and divorce we went from abundance to poverty. Santa stopped showing up.
I reflect on the numerous African American children living in poverty today along with the ones who do not have a relationship with their father. While we don't have a monopoly on poverty and fatherlessness, it has consequences for our community including: early drug use to numb the pain; gang affiliation to fulfill the need to belong, drug selling with profit motives; academic decline etc.
What Helps?
Mentorship
Aunts and uncles helping to support single parents and build relationships with their nieces and nephews.
Memberships to Boys and Girls Club and other prosocial groups which fulfill the need to belong.
The community becoming Santa for kids who have no toys or food for Christmas.
My early Christmas' were so magical that I wanted create similar magic for my children. When my turn came, as an Afrocentric thinker in a white supremacist society, I could not move myself to allow my children to believe that a white man on a sled, led by Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer delivered their toys from the North Pole. They have known from the start that their parents were Santa Claus.