Or, in our case down under in the land of the long hot summer, the sweet smell of a freshly felled real-deal Christmas tree.
Word has it from the big fella all of his reindeer are full-on into crossfit training and he himself has been on a gluten-free diet, slimming down in preparation for sliding down our chimneys smoother than a Bluff island oyster on a wine-coated throat.
So this is Christmas and what will it bring besides another year older? Will there be a glimmer of hope from Paris that the planet has a chance to change? Or, is it too late?
Will there be the same old same old in our stockings when it comes to solutions from councils and Government? Will they listen to the voice of tomorrow's generation who want a planet to play on as we do today? Or, has the ice melted away already and maybe Hana Koko can't get enough runway to take off and show up at all? Yes, it will be a photo finish as to the ongoing future of our planet but, with a little help from Santa and his kind-hearted billionaire mates, I think we can make it.
In America, these generous givers of billions are known as Unicorns and now the new league of Decacorns, like Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg, who are to donate 99 per cent of their Facebook shares worth $67 billion, have put their hands up to say let's save the planet and stop polluting it for profit.
We have our own well-off who are sharing their success with our community. The sooner we can celebrate their success by showing an attitude of gratitude, the more chance we have of bringing a brighter future to our communities.
The breakdown in beatitudes of gratitude attitudes seems to start with our elected leaders both at local and national levels. When someone offers a gift horse, let's at least open it up and consider it for all of its merits and not just return it to sender with a "thanks but no thanks, we don't need it" attitude, as was the case with the gift horse given by Gareth Morgan.
We can wait all day for Santa to save us and the same can be said for councils when it comes to providing the art and amenities we need to be the best, and blessed we surely should be, but the realist in me says it just isn't going to happen.
Nothing changes when nothing changes and it starts at the top. The same can be said about the environment when waiting for Governments to implement change and for my two cents worth of Santa saving the day, my faith lies in the hands of the Unicorns and their ilk, who see the solution and want to share their success in bringing about change.
Christmas carried by Santa and climate change carried by our global leaders, both carry with them a juxtaposition of solutions. One wants to bring a message of hope and kindness and place it beneath our tree. While the other seems to only care about what's under the tree this year with their profit-before-people attitude and this will carry forward as presents for our future generations to unwrap, long after they have left the council chambers or corridors of power.
The inconvenient truth about Christmas and climate change is they are happening, whether we believe in them or not. We can ignore the elephant in the rising-tide room, just as we can close our chimneys to Santa, but one thing is for sure.
Christmas is coming and so is climate change. It's up to us if they all come at once.
-broblack@xtra.co.nz
Tommy Wilson is a best-selling local author and writer.
