‘Santa power’ a festive solution to keep the lights on this Christmas

Here we are at the end of another school year and Christmas is approaching. You will all be heading off for your summer break soon, farewelling teachers and putting the schoolbag and textbooks in the cupboard for a while.

For me, this is the time of the year when I’m asked to create yet another Christmas card to celebrate the festive season. Over my career, I have drawn a lot of Christmas cards. I have drawn cards with happy Santas and grumpy ones, lazy reindeer, reindeer with flashing noses, elves that are joyful and elves that are on strike seeking better pay and conditions in Santa’s workshop. There were cards with nativity scenes, another with baby Jesus receiving a Game Boy console from the Three Wise Men. One of my faves was the Three Wise Men doing their Christmas shopping at the Boxing Day sales for a bargain gift for the newborn king. Okay, so they were a day late, but wise in the fact they were saving money. Christmas is a feast of ideas for a cartoonist.

This year I wondered what my motivation might be? As luck would have it, I was listening to the news and the lead story was about state governments warning us that we might have to turn off appliances this summer when the weather turns hot, to reduce the load on the electricity power grid*. It just so happened that the day before, I was at my local Bunnings store buying Christmas lights for our house. When I heard the breaking news, I thought how terribly sad it would be if I had to turn off my Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer light display in the front yard to conserve power and prevent neighbourhood blackouts. My Christmas would be ruined! On the bright side (no pun* intended) it gave me a great idea for a Christmas card.

It seems as we transition to renewable energy*, we are going to have periods where we cannot generate enough power to satisfy demand. Peak demand* is from 5-9pm when we all come home from work and school and light the house up like a Christmas tree. Unfortunately that’s when wind and solar renewables are winding down for the day. There’s not enough batteries around to store electricity and our coal and gas power plants, which once produced a 24 hour constant base load* power supply, are being put out to pasture* because they are ageing and out of favour. So my question was: How are we going to power our Christmas lights at night when solar and wind go missing? I had the answer. In my cartoon, I created a new source of renewable energy. Santa power. Don’t laugh.

To start with, I drew an old exercise bike, just like the one in the garage that your mum bought 10 years ago and is now covered in cobwebs. I connected the wheel of that via a rubber car fan belt to an old automotive alternator*, then added some jump leads, a car battery, wired to a power board – and a few extension cords later, it was all connected to the Christmas lights. All I had to do in the cartoon was to get Santa aboard the exercise bike and pedal like Cadel Evans* in the Tour de France, and we would have our Christmas tree lit up like a joyous beacon!

The one small problem with this power source is that it requires a Santa that is willing to put up and pedal. Just keep feeding him Christmas cake and cups of tea. Not beer. I will say that judging by the expression on his face in the cartoon, we may still have the occasional Christmas lights blackout.

May I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous new year!

POLL

GLOSSARY

• power grid: an interconnected network that delivers electricity from suppliers to households that includes power stations, substations, and power lines
• pun: a play on words
• renewable energy: energy from a source that is not depleted when used, such as wind or solar power
• peak demand: when households consume the most electricity
• base load: the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a period of time
• out to pasture: not be used anymore because it is old
• automotive alternator: a car alternator is an electrical generator than charges the car battery and powers the car’s electrical system when the engine is running
• Cadel Evans: an Australian former professional racing cyclist and four time Olympian who won the Tour de France in 2011

EXTRA READING
Wild winds too much for turbines
High-flying PM hits turbulence
Blackout, fires: Victoria’s dark day

QUICK QUIZ
1. What are two examples of Christmas cards Mark Knight has drawn in previous years?
2. What was the inspiration behind this year’s card?
3. Why are state governments warning people to conserve electricity?
4. How does Mark Knight’s concept of “Santa power” work?
5. What does the look on Santa’s face suggest?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What’s going on?
What’s going on in this Mark Knight cartoon? Outline the following:

Issue –

Why is it newsworthy?

What’s the humour?

Which side of the issue are they representing?

What do you see that makes you say that?

–

–

–

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
If you could turn this cartoon into a joke to tell a friend, how would you phrase it? Is it funny? Could they guess the answer?

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
What happens next?
Imagine this story is part of an animated series made up of three cartoons. The three cartoons tell the complete story and this article is only Part One. Think about what the rest of the story could be and draw the next two cartoons that tell the story.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Visual Communication Design, Critical and Creative Thinking