Fergus Finlay: Santa Claus is going to bring cheer to a world of floods and famines

I’ve flown through world wars, uprisings, and pandemics. Why do I have this sense of foreboding that things are getting worse, especially for children?

‘My job is bring a moment of joy. To leave behind a little more hope than I found. It’s more challenging every year.’

It's cold up here, as far North as it is possible to go. We are equipped to deal with it and it will not slow us down. But all of us who live here — my little band of industrious elves, the designers, the builders, the collectors and the parcel makers — have put in our busiest year ever.

Of course, when I say they’re industrious, I’m not talking about all of them. Some of our elves work really hard, and some can’t get out of bed in the morning. Especially at this time of year, when I need them all to be at their best, I can sometimes get a little bit grumpy at some of their behaviour. I know it’s hard to believe that I of all people can get grumpy sometimes. But it’s never my fault — you know that.

As you can imagine, our work doesn’t just demand speed, it also needs huge organisation. We’ve recently discovered this thing up here called “logistics”. Mrs Claus went off to study it and, luckily for me, they discovered that she deserved the highest certification possible. They quizzed her really hard about where she had acquired what seemed like hundreds of years of experience. But of course, my good wife gave away no secrets.

We need her skills, and all the energy the elves can bring, more than ever right now. Year after year I watch the population of the world grow, and I try with all my resources to keep a close count of the number of children. Only a couple of weeks ago, you reached an amazing landmark of 8 billion people, all over the world. And nearly 700 million of them are children up to the age of 5. They above all are the ones I cannot let down, ever.

I will do everything in my power to make certain that I find every boy and girl, wherever they are in the world. And when it comes to finding children, my powers are very considerable. I have never failed. It doesn’t matter to me where they live, or how often they have had to move, or how difficult or overcrowded or inaccessible their living circumstances are.

But what I need you to understand is how much my heart breaks when I find some of them.

I have found children living in tunnels, children who haven’t eaten for days, children who haven’t seen their parents for a long time, children who are ill and whose lives are threatened by disease. 

In rich countries sometimes even more than in poor countries, I find children who have no love, no care, no safety or security in their lives.

I’ve circled the globe many many times on my journeys. I’ve flown through world wars, uprisings, terrible plagues and pandemics. Why do I have this sense of foreboding that things are getting worse, especially for children?

A terrible war

Bad men have risen up in the world. Even some of the ones who aren’t truly bad are irresponsible and feckless — like one of those elves who have to be chased everywhere just to do their jobs. Since I last set out on my great Christmas Eve journey, a terrible and unjustified war throughout Ukraine has killed children and driven thousands more from their homes.

In Pakistan, terrible floods have threatened the lives of thousands of children. My favourite organisation in the world is the United Nations, and they have already told me that I will meet maybe as many as 10 million girls and boys who need immediate, lifesaving support. They live still in floodwaters or beside flooded areas. They live in makeshift tents alongside the road — often in the open, maybe drinking stagnant water. Of course, I must go, but I admit to being filled with dread at the frailty I will meet.

And I will be in Yemen. I will be in Iran. I will be in Gaza. I will be in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. I have flown over these countries already, planning my route, and I have been horrified at the mile after mile of brown dry land that used to be green. A million children are hungry there, and I have already been saddened beyond belief at the thought of the malnourished children I will meet.

Sometimes my job seems impossible to me. Because what I have to do is not just try to bring nourishment and a moment of joy, but above all, I want to leave hope behind. 

I think sometimes that if only I could bring the leaders of the world here to the North Pole for the week after Christmas, maybe that would make a difference.

I’d keep them warm, and encourage them to try to remember their own childhoods. I would tell them what I’ve seen. I would make them listen to some of the sounds I’ve heard. I would show them in great detail the effects of poverty, climate change, hunger and oppression and injustice. I would try my hardest to make them believe that with every child who suffers, the whole world loses.

'Ireland is one of my favourite places in the whole world.'

And, of course, on Christmas Eve I will come to Ireland, one of my favourite places in the whole world. I first see it from a great height, and my heart lifts when I see that little green dot down below. It’s a magical place — I’ve always felt more welcome there than anywhere else in the world.

You have just changed your government, and my heart was gladdened at how easily you did it. It seems to me that Ireland understands the importance of democratic change, in a way that some of your neighbours seem to have forgotten.

And I was pleased too that your new Taoiseach expressed as one of his ambitions that Ireland should be the best place in the world to be a child. You’re a rich country, and there is no reason why you could not achieve that.

But first, you must get to a place where every child has a safe and decent home. You must be a country where no child has to wait in a long queue to get the support they need — especially if he or she is sick or has a disability. I know right now that long queues are a challenge faced by far too many children and their families.

Your children are so wonderful. I’ve met so many over the years, dreaming their dreams of bright futures, surrounded by joy and warmth and abundance.

But then there are the others. There are too many, far too many. Children without happiness, children who are cold and afraid, children for whom Christmas is just another day to be endured. Children for whom the best I can give is not enough to turn their lives around.

My job is the same as it has always been. To bring a moment of joy. To leave behind a little more hope than I found. It’s more challenging every year. But we start out with the same purpose, and we always will. We’ll be there. We’ll find every child. They know that Santa Claus will never let them down.

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