What is supposed to be a time of peace and good will becomes, for some, a time when the reality of human greed and folly and cruelty mocks the lovely sentiments of the season. But I'm not sure anyone can experience what Christmas really means without confronting that sense of lost innocence and the potential for disillusionment the holiday can bring. Only after we truly face up to Christmas without Santa can we as adults begin to grapple with what Christmas is all about ... God's gift of ultimate hope that our human destiny is something more than a brief doomed moment in "the benign indifference of the universe."