El 107 Magazine Volume 1.1 | December 2017 | Page 11

Nadia Fernández [email protected] Francisco Santos [email protected] the Santa scam Things get stranger “As magical as Santa makes Christmas, is the lie really worth it?” Every year the holidays come around, kids write their wish lists in hopes that a jolly man dressed in red and white will bring them presents come Christmas morning. This annual tradition has been around since the 16th century, when the folk tale of Father Christ- mas was merged with the story of St. Nicholas, a Greek Bishop who sent Nuns to gift the poor. Jump forward to the 20th century and this idea of gifting impoverished people has been completely replaced by a magical being, who goes by the name of Santa Claus, and brings presents to those who behave year round. Personally, the experience of waking up December 25th to a bunch of gifts was mystical, so I was utterly disappointed when I found out the truth. As magical as Santa makes Christmas, is the lie really worth it? From the beginning, you are setting your child up for inevitable disappointment. Not to mention the distrust that arises from this deceit. If adults tell well-inten- tioned lies about Santa for years, what else could they be hiding? If Santa isn’t real, is magic real? Is religion? Is God? A child’s natural trust in their parents is com- pletely undermined, especially if they find out the truth at a young age. Yet time and time again, adults tell the “Christmas tale,” because it makes both them and their kids happy. The imagination and magic nurtured into them as kids, is completely lost in adulthood, but comes back in flashes by the excitement of now being the ones who puts presents under the tree. Maybe the bitterness of real life needs something enjoyable, something to hope for, to believe in, to return to a long- lost childhood. The joy of waking to find the tree filled with presents,the mem- ories, the laughter, family, lights, candy canes, is the lie worth it? “The show’s sophomore season ups the tense, slow-building sense of dread, crafting a darker, more polished storyline that maintains the same nostalgic sense of the 80’s” Warning: This article contains minor spoilers for Stranger Things 2. As the year’s holiday season rolled around, Netflix aficionados from across the globe craving a Halloween weekend binge were rewarded with the second season of the critically acclaimed, massively successful phenomenon that is Stranger Things 2. The show follows life in Hawkins a year after Will Byers’ mysterious resurrection, centered around a bigger, badder Shadow Monster that stalks and preys upon the citizens of the small town. Created and produced by the Duffer Broth- ers, and released on October 27th, 2017, the show’s sophomore season ups the tense, slow-building sense of dread, crafting a darker, more polished sto- ryline that maintains the same nostalgic sense of the 80’s sweetness that made the first installment a fan favorite. Boasting a stellar soundtrack, retro-iconic cinematography, and Sean Astin, there are Spielber- gian traces laced in every bike ride, arcade game, and alien apocalypse conjured up in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. Needless to say, this is not per- fect television; at times, it feels as though Stranger Things 2 either sticks too close to the first season’s source material, or strays as radically far from it as possible (an especially random, Eleven-centric episode comes to mind), thus having trouble finding a middle ground. Still, it is terribly hard not to warm up to the childlike, profoundly human, array of char- acters that we have all come to know and love. Through it all, I am left assured that Stranger Things 2 lives up to all of its hype. Decidedly strange and yet somehow strikingly familiar, the second sea- son to one of the best shows on television is, without a doubt, certified holiday binge material. 11