Tuesday, November 26, 2013

What Should We Do With Santa Claus?

Christian parents and teachers are always faced with the challenging discussion at Christmas time about what to do with good ole Saint Nick. Should we promote him, or should we only focus on the real Christmas story and the Nativity? Should we tell children about Santa’s existence or not? Our culture promotes the jolly old fellow so strongly I don’t think we can ignore it, but I do believe there are some great ways that children can be taught Santa Claus as a way to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas. One great way to do this is by sharing the actual story of St. Nick (yes, he is actually a real saint!) with our children. 

The real Nicholas was a bishop in Lycia (Turkey) during the 4th century AD who was well-known for his service to the people and his generosity. He was known to secretly place coins in the shoes of people who left them out—thus he became the model for Santa Claus many years later. “Santa Claus” comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas which is actually a misinterpretation of Saint Nicholas. Nevertheless, over time his reputation and stories grew and grew as folklore was added and his works increased in the eyes of the people. After St. Nicholas was venerated as a saint, his feast day was placed on December 6th: once the celebration of St. Nick’s day became more popular in Europe and America as a day to give gifts and fill stockings left out by children with small gifts, Christmas began to merge with this day. Therefore, the story of Santa Claus and Christmas became two December holidays that were forged into one month-long celebration of generosity and joy. 

So you see? The real St. Nick actually embodies much of what our culture celebrates (the whole north pole/reindeer thing was developed in the early 1800s, but he actually was known for wearing a heavy red fur coat due to the cold weather!) but many people may see Christ’s birth and Santa as opposing forces. The truth is, we can use the story of St. Nicholas to further proclaim the real message of Christ’s birth, because St. Nicholas was a devout believer in God and gave generously in order to serve others. He provided small gifts to the poor and gave whatever he could to help people feel merry during this time of year. He is still known as someone who was full-heartedly devoted to his Christian faith; one of his most well-known acts of generosity was buying dowries for three impoverished girls so that they would not have to become prostitutes. 

I know it’s still difficult to try and explain some of these details without forcing children not to believe in Santa (I made a friend of mine cry when I was little when I told him Santa wasn’t real…). However, we simply cannot allow Jesus to be pushed away at Christmas; I know for me, my family never really talked about Santa even though he wasn’t denied, but we always read the Christmas story from Luke 2 on Christmas morning with our family before we could open any presents. Maybe we can explain that the “magic” of St. Nick actually came from his love for God and people. We should be generous because God has blessed us so richly with things we never deserved, and I know that those attributes were impressed upon me from a young age. Hopefully as adults we will be able to impress the same ideals upon our children! What to do with Santa is ultimately the individual parent’s choice, but let’s not replace Christmas with “holidays” or the manger scene with reindeer and a sleigh, for that does injustice to Jesus and to the real St. Nick! Let's all make a special effort to worship Christ's birth and salvation as the only one who could ever save us from our sins!