Here's an encore presentation of something we discussed on this blog last Christmas. Two friends of this blog, Terry Mattingly and Erin Manning, took opposite sides of the debate over whether Christians should observe the Santa Claus myth in their households.
Terry says no, that Christmas belongs to the Church. Excerpt:
Here is the key question: Does saying "yes" to St. Nicholas automatically mean saying "no" to Santa Claus?Even before we converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, my wife and I had made the decision that – in our house – the answer would be affirmative. The reason was simple: We didn't want to say things to our children that we do not believe are true.
In other words, we believe that the whole season of Nativity Lent and Christmas belong, first and foremost, to the church. That's an issue – as the Orthodox would say – of Christian Tradition with a "big T."
Erin, who is Catholic, takes the pro-Santa side:
Are we lying to our children, with our ancient stories and cherished poems of a kindly saint who loves all children and hears their whispered wishes and dreams? Not at all – we are telling them the truth. It's just that some truths can't be found in scholarly lectures or discovered in dry books of facts. When we teach our wide-eyed little ones the legend of St. Nicholas, we are teaching them essential lessons about faith, hope and unconditional love. When we sit by glowing embers to share with them our December stories, we instruct them in such virtues as generosity, patience and the sort of kindness that expects no reward.And they are able to learn these things from us because for a few short weeks every year, we find it possible to enter the world of make-believe. We fill our homes with songs and stories, and turn ordinary rooms into glittering palaces. The everyday world is swept away.
Me, I side with Erin on this matter. But what would you expect from a guy whose Christmas column last year contained the phrase "hydrocephalic sluts"?
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Tmatt, to answer your question: nope.
Besides, as I mentioned last year, if you're going to "let St. Nicholas be St. Nicholas," you have to accept him as a saint who was a bishop and about whom almost nothing else is known for sure. Celebrating his feast day in any way, repeating the story of the gold coins, claiming his patronage, is *already* celebrating a legendary character--and some of those legends may be fiction. Only God and St. Nicholas know for sure.
Nobody says you have to choose between the (supposedly) ascetic, definitely obscure bishop and the Coca-cola guy. We told our kids a long time ago that "Santa" is just another name for St. Nicholas.
If you look at the history of Christmas celebrations, you see that many cultures have developed a "gift-giver" who is responsible for the presents children receive at Christmas or Epiphany. La Befana. The Wise Men (for whose camels children leave straw, instead of the carrots left originally for St. Nicholas' horse). Even the Kristkind Himself.
Why? Is it all commercialism, greed? Is it all because adults secretly like to fool children into believing? That sounds to me more like something a non-believer would say.
I like to think that parents in different cultures across different centuries developed these traditions so that, like the good God Himself, they could grant their children's wishes with no expectation of thanks. I like to think that when we say that St. Nicholas is responsible for the largess in stockings or under trees, we're acting a little like Our Heavenly Father, who sees our wants, gives us everything we need, and sometimes grants us even the childish wishes we scarcely acknowledge to ourselves, for no reason other than that, since He is our Bountiful Father, He wishes to bring us joy. Surely our imitation of that beneficence is a good and holy thing.
My only response is ... (HTTP://)
www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/
ROD, OMG! Have I gotta HOT TIP for my cheap-as-hell-en-route-to-heaven friend! The 99 Cent Store in your neighborhood @ corner of Carroll and Live Oak is AWESOME. Spent $58 there and it was so organized, clean, full of treasures and laughs and stocking stuffers and in some cases just great stuff! Take the gang and go there NOW. Tell em Rollie sentcha. On Donner, On Blitzer (Wolf, Wolf!)
Maybe we need a "St Nicolas Time", the first week in December. During this time intrusive giving is done, carefully of course. Call this ANTI-BURGLARY. People like the Knights of Columbus, police-firemen, paroled thieves, etc can distribute gifts INSIDE homes or near enough to that.
Why do this? Maybe just to have a little fun! People of means who want to contribute a big red ST NICK BAG can tag along at night with the anti-burglars and slum a bit and have a hoot. The ST NICK BAG can have some nice goodies plus a wad of cash (maybe a certain minimum of say $400). The people getting this would generally be the poor and the ST NICK BAG would allow them to have a more festive CHRISTMAS. The timing would work in just right.
Not everyone can or will get a ST NICK BAG of course. But this will allow a sense of gratitute instead of an arrogant sense of entitlement in the receivers.
Somebody with some stamina and testosterone should try this! Really! Of course the lawyers will try to shut it down.
Mr. Mattingly: Santa's red suit does NOT come from Coca-Cola. I believe you have been corrected on this in the past, so I find it rather annoying that you continue to spread the myth.
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp
As for the fact that St. Nicholas is now an "optional memorial," I doubt that anyone other than professionally churchy people like you, me, and Erin even know this. I believe St. Patrick is also an optional memorial now, which certainly seems not to have affected related revelry.
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