Santa killed Christ? There is some validity to that statement, but that doesn’t mean Christ or Christmas is gone. Christ is very much alive and swinging after the resurrection according to the Good Book. Christmas still means the celebration of Jesus’ birthday (although his birth most likely occurred during spring, when the census took place). Of course people aren’t singing the “Happy Birthday†song to Jesus, but they are paying tribute to the tradition whether they know its original history, which includes customs from the winter festival Saturnalia, a pagan holiday.
Santa has an array of origins and customs all over the world. St. Nicholas, a philanthropic bishop in 3 AD, gave gifts to the needy. Today, the old man in the red suit isn’t as saintly, but that’s where it started. And for those who think that Christmas is religion exclusive, realize that there are pagan rituals involved with Christmas like the decorated Christmas tree, from Winter Solstice.
I never had my parents reenact Santa coming down the chimney and put presents under the tree. I had my picture taken with Santa Claus when I was a little kid, but I never made a thing of it. I didn’t write him a “I want so-and-so” list. I was never lied to that my presents came from some magical random fat man. It became clear that it was indeed my parents who cared about me and gave me all those great toys. With that said, I have no problem with celebrating Santa, but there’s nothing wrong with not celebrated him either. In fact, many countries sat aside a different day to honor Nicholas the saint.
Some possible critiques though might be that American Santa isn’t giving presents to the poor as an act of charity. If you’re rich, Santa is able to give a kid from a wealthy family more presents or bigger presents than a child from a needy home. It can promote greed in wanting a thousand toys. My younger brother once wanted more than a thousand toys when he was told that Santa would bring him presents. He made a list so big that it cataloged catalogs. It was an anthology of all existing toys from circulars, magazines, commercials, and stores.
Santa may seem like an innocent and fun part of Christmas, but there is room for exploitation. With Santa’s foot in the door, he will easily find ways to take control of Christmas and destroy Jesus once and for all. He will just push and keep pushing and dashing and dashing away, stirring and sleighing away our Lord chimney by chimney until we have Christ no more. Satan is the carnation of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, or in this case Santa’s clothing. Unless we have the core teachings of Jesus firmly in our heart, we will be unable to kill Santa.
Just so you know, that last paragraph is satirical and is not my real opinion. Early April Fools. 😉 I’m not fanatic about bashing a bishop or abolishing Christ’ Mass. Santa Claus can be used and abused, but he can also be tamed. Just because he became a tradition does not mean he will overcome the true reason of Christmas. Closing the door to prevent a Santa Day is very possible. Don’t accept the slippery slope fallacy as definitive cause for any further effect. Let Santa be a part of Christmas, but don’t go overboard either. Don’t let a retail store dictate what you should do this Christmas. It’s Christmas itself that gets enough heat from politically correct psychos. People need to meet in the middle and suck in the holiday gut.
Merry Christmas. And Happy Hanukkah, Jolly Kwanzaa, Festivus, Saturnalia, Carol Day. Today is also Eggnog Day.
3 comments
Ray says:
Dec 24, 2006
This is interesting.
Because there has been a lot of talk around work about this very subject. I will tell you what I think and then explain where I am coming from.
As I grow older I start to wonder about this and many other subjects and what I will do when I have children. When I was a child it was the opposite for me. I believed in Santa and ended up stopping when I was old enough to know. Maybe it was around the time that I started putting the money under my little sisters pillow myself instead of my parents (the tooth fairy) because they forgot. I don’t really even know.
A lot of what I am about to say was slightly stolen from Dennis Prager who has an article in defense of Santa (Dennis himself is Jewish). I to will attempt to defend him in a way that not many people think about.
When I was a child sesame street was cool so was Muppet babies and shows like that. Now I don’t watch them that much, maybe about once or twice a year. I believe that Santa is the same way when your a child its cool but when you get older you grow out of it. Just like I grew out of thinking that the ninja turtles that I saw in concert was really the turtles themselves. And when I went to see the turtles my mother didn’t say to me sorry those aren’t really the turtles they are just some guy’s in a turtle suit. She didn’t say anything she let me believe what I wanted to believe. Actually my parents never told me that Santa was real nor did they tell me that he was fake. It was up to me if I wanted to believe then I did If I didn’t then I didn’t. And when my parents told me that babies come from mommies they didn’t tell me that the had sex and go into graphic details, I was far to young to grasp that so the question is is embellishing something that your child believes a lie. I it is then all parents are liars just for allowing their children to have an imagination. So in essence what is the difference between letting your child believe in Santa and believe that The ninja turtles are really the turtles or puppets can really talk or my imaginary friend is really there.
If you go back and watch the old clay-mation movies from the 70’s about Santa they push him as a Christan man that likes giving to people and gets married in a Christian wedding and knows the real reason for Christmas. I understand that the Santa of hundreds of years ago was a man who gave to the poor. But should people not promote giving and receiving no matter what rung of the social ladder you stand on. I would dispute the fact that the want for gifts from Santa only promotes greed, because if there is a person that wants gifts during Christmas odds are they are going to want it in the summer as well, and simple management of a child’s imagination by a parent can make that problem swiftly disappear. If we hold to that standard then receiving gifts on our birthday’s and even on Christmas from our parents should be banned because that to can conjure up the same feelings of grreed in a child. Exclude Santa from the picture and say one child gets a doll and the other gets a computer for their birthday. It is possible that the child could become jealous and envious and get mad at their parents for not being rich enough. So to say that it is any worse during Christmas does not hold water with me. Two words parental responsibility.
It has been proven this season that the PC police obviously don’t know anything. Their attempt to get rid of the Christmas tree was really smart seeing as how that is the number one pagan symbol of Christmas. I would like to submit that the next thing to go by these idiots will be Santa. Look at the characteristics of Santa he’s a Saint, he’s borderline obese, he obviously is a Christian, and he promotes animal abuse by making reindeer pull his sleigh.
Theres the prager article.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DennisPrager/2002/12/24/in_defense_of_santa_claus
liquid parallax says:
Dec 25, 2006
@Ray: I would agree that the want for gifts from Santa doesn’t promote greed only, but there is definitely a possibility, especially with irresponsible parents who don’t or won’t do “simple management.” My problem is parental responsibility– it doesn’t protect the children with careless parents.
The difference with birthdays is that you don’t write a letter or make a wishlist. You either ask your parents directly or get surprised. It becomes a more personalized request, because a (smart) boy knows his parents can’t buy a bowling alley. The injustice is removed for a birthday because it’s not the same person (Santa Claus) that gives gifts to everyone. Each family has different parents and kids, so the child that gets a doll knows that his parents could only afford that. But with Santa, a poor girl is convinced that she will get something above the poverty line since Santa has a whole workshop. So the psychological implications are imposed on the imagination. It’s not an issue of lying, but of implying. It skews the belief and brings hope to kids that they’ll get better than what would otherwise be possible.
I think P.C. police will not attack Santa, because even some Christians don’t like him. The ACLU wouldn’t want to side on a potential Christian viewpoint. I think it was Martin Luther that tried to alter St. Nick into ChristKind or Christ Child or Baby Jesus, but it just got morphed into Kris Kringle. I don’t think the added Baby Jesus fixed any problems. Plus almost all controversies of Santa are Christian in that he has become secularized. Wikipedia has no secular criticisms of Santa, but I don’t endorse any in whole. If anything, I would see Santa getting advertised over Christ, as in your foot in the door example I parodied. Although I don’t agree with the foot in the door principle, Political Correction usually means Christian suppression, so if you do follow that reasoning then Santa should be increasing his prominence over Jesus’ birth. It would make no sense if they got rid of Santa, then only Christ would be left.
I agree with Dennis on all points, but I would also add there’s nothing wrong with not celebrating Santa either. You don’t have to force kids to know he’s fake, but it’s also no necessity that you have to acknowledge him as part of Christmas, just as you don’t HAVE TO put up christmas lights outside to have Christmas. It doesn’t detract from the cheer of Christmas as long as you spending time with your family in love. Banning Santa for others is wrong though. Give people the freedom to celebrate however they want to.
My main reason for writing this article was to expose the ridiculousness of Santa being evil or wrong, hence the crazy title that I personally oppose in fact. I suggested some things that COULD make Santa bad, but in the end I could care less what anybody does. It’s not a big deal.
Ray says:
Dec 25, 2006
I know what your intentions are. I am as afraid of Santa doing anything to Christmas as I am about the Smurf’s and Harry Potter hurting me during any normal part of the year.
I totally agree that it could be bad. The best example would be a baseball bat in a good persons hand it is used to play baseball. In the hands of an idiot it is used to beat people.
I agree that the stupidity of people that are afraid of things like Santa or the smurf’s. I saw the parody of the foot in the door, I would submit that the Government has far more power than Santa. So where I don like the foot in the door example when applied to this it doesn’t work.
The one thing that I thought should be mentioned is that we are talking about something that we cannot exactly take part in any more. We are no longer four years old so no matter what our view on this subject is going to be a bias view.