Woman Says It's Time To Start Giving 'The Unsung Hero' Mrs. Claus The Recognition She Deserves During The Christmas Season
"Mrs. Claus doesn't just deck the halls; she's the unsung hero ensuring the North Pole runs smoothly while Santa gets all the credit."
TSViPhoto | Shutterstock According to popular holiday songs, Santa Claus is “making a list and checking it twice” to find out which children were naughty and nice. However, most holiday tunes conveniently neglect to mention Mrs. Claus, who likely has to remind her husband thousands of times to make said list to begin with.
This Christmas, mom Penny Middleton is urging others to acknowledge all of the hard work Mrs. Claus does behind the scenes to make Christmas possible.
The woman says that it's time to start giving 'the unsung hero' Mrs. Claus the recognition she deserves.
Middleton said that for 35 years of her life, she fell for the “collective delusion” that Santa "organizes Christmas and goes around the world, makes a list and checks it twice without the help of this woman."
The truth is that Old St. Nick — like many successful men — would be unable to accomplish such things without the help of his wife.
“This woman is making sure that the list is made,” Middleton said, referring to Mrs. Claus.
Using two adorable stuffed Santa and Mrs. Claus toys, Middleton demonstrated a conversation that she believes the two have often, in which Mrs. Claus repeatedly reminds her husband of everything he has to do, from making the all-important list to finding a replacement for Rudolph, who is in the emergency room for his red nose.
"You know what? I’m gonna go ahead and re-email you the list because I digitized it about 35,000 years ago, so I’ll just go ahead and email it to you again. And then, can you please just check it twice today?" Middleton's Mrs. Claus asked her husband.
"I’m gonna check it, it’s just not a big deal. It’s the 23rd; we have two days before Christmas," the stuffed Santa responded. "God, you make everything a big deal!"
This year, Middleton said that she is celebrating the efforts of Mrs. Claus and Mrs. Claus only.
To start, she has decided to leave cookies out for Mrs. Claus rather than her husband.
John A King | Shutterstock
“There is no way this man goes around the world in a day with a list without the help of this woman,” she insisted, also crediting the work of Santa’s elves who make all of the toys in the first place.
“Mrs. Claus doesn't just deck the halls; she's the unsung hero ensuring the North Pole runs smoothly while Santa gets all the credit,” she captioned her video.
Others couldn’t agree more.
“Santa is out shoveling snow and painting the reindeer barn on 12/23 with zero sense of urgency about the list,” one TikTok user commented.
“He's making a list, he's checking it twice, he left it at home, he's texting his wife,” another user wrote.
Mrs. Claus is a fictional representation of all of the very real wives around the world who make Christmas possible.
More often than not, it is the women of the families who are composing lists, doing all of the shopping, sticking to a budget, wrapping the gifts, making the gingerbread houses, stuffing the stockings, and decorating the tree — the list goes on. Meanwhile, their husbands do nothing except dress up as Santa as the children jump up and down in excitement.
According to The Guardian, a 2016 study found that women were responsible for 17 Christmas-related jobs, including buying and writing Christmas cards, making nativity costumes, and preparing the Christmas dinner if hosting. Men, on the other hand, only took on nine of the holiday responsibilities, including setting up new toys and carving the Christmas turkey.
Given all of the tasks that fall on their shoulders during the holiday season, many women find it unenjoyable and dread what is marketed as “the most wonderful time of the year” (it probably is for blissfully unaware husbands).
This Christmas season, we have a message for all of the men out there who often fail to pick up the slack around the holidays.
Take the initiative to do some shopping. Get the decorations out of the attic without being asked. Fill up her stocking. Bring the kids to pick out the Christmas tree and allow Mom a few moments to kick back, crank up the holiday tunes, and throw back a glass of eggnog.
Christmas would never happen without all of her work. It’s time to start recognizing her and all of the Mrs. Clauses out there who don’t get nearly enough credit for decking the halls on their own!
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.