Does Santa Claus innoculate children from religion? Can the cultural myth and the Gospel message co-exist in a way that makes sense?
The Christian Century recently published an RNS story that describes how various Christian traditions wrestle with Santa. It commences:
When the Rev. John McCausland crafted his Christmas Eve sermon at his Episcopal church in Weare, N.H., he always followed a basic formula.
There had to be a brother and a sister in the story. Jesus and the holy family played a prominent role. And there was always an appearance from Santa Claus.
“If we never mention Santa Claus, then you create a parallel universe,” said McCausland, who retired in June. “What I try to do in this story is to tie the two together, but not make Santa Claus primary.”
McCausland kept the Jesus-and-Santa story tradition for 14 years at Holy Cross Episcopal Church. Children would carry the figures to the creche display and sit for McCausland’s story, in which Santa often joins in the adoration of the Christ child.
Just where to place the jolly elf in the original Christmas story can be a perennial dilemma for both parents and pastors. This year, two new products draw on educating kids about the origins of Santa, or inspiring them to become Santas themselves.
Phil Vischer, creator of the popular VeggieTales characters, has launched a DVD that answers the question, “Why Do We Call it Christmas?” The video, hosted by Vischer and featuring puppets and animation, spends 45 minutes detailing the origins of Christmas traditions, including Santa Claus.
One puppet on the DVD credits American TV shows and movies that “mushed up Christmas” by melding stories of St. Nicholas and the Nativity. “How did this guy become such a big part of Jesus’ birthday party?” Vischer asks as the video opens.
In an interview, he said he hopes to diffuse tensions between Christian parents who want nothing to do with Santa and those who think there’s room for both Jesus and Santa.
“We have the ability to get kind of paranoid,” Vischer said. “I think it’s easy for some Christians to say there’s got to be some plot, there’s some evil organization, that is foisting Santa upon us to steal Jesus.”
Vischer’s video trip back through history details the celebrations of Christ’s Mass (which became Christmas) to mark Jesus’ birth, and the Feast of St. Nicholas that recalls the giving saint who helped poor children.
“I think it would be awesome if Christian parents could bring back a more overt celebration of St. Nicholas because, effectively, you can have your Santa and Jesus, too,” Vischer said.
Kelly Moss, author of the new book “The Santa Club,” is doing just that by encouraging children to join “millions of Santa Clauses” around the world in being generous givers modeled after St. Nicholas, who she considers the first Santa as well as a follower of Jesus.
Her book was inspired by the answer her mother-in-law gave to her older son, Jonathan, when she and her husband were flummoxed about how to handle his inquiry about Santa. He stayed up that night with his grandmother and helped place gifts for his younger brother, Jameson, under the Christmas tree.
“The following year, when Jameson asked (about Santa), Jonathan said, ‘I’ll handle this, Mom,’ and he welcomed him into The Santa Club,” Moss recalled of her sons, now 22 and 20.
MORE AT:
http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-12/parents-pastors-wrestle-place-santa-christmas
An Excerpt from Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words by Robert Corin Morris
Robert Corin Morris presents Jesus’ rigorous challenges to us that are life-giving, paradoxical, relational, and difficult. Here is an excerpt on grace.
“Every once in a while it seems like we won’t make it. We hit terrible rapids that almost swamp the rafts. Each time that happens, God speaks softly, strongly, comfortingly, encouragingly: ‘Hang on. Keep paddling. Everything will be all right.’ Like a rider reassuring a nervous horse on the edge of bolting, like a captain rallying the troops, like Jesus giving the disciples hope just before his betrayal and death, or like a mother humming to quiet her infant while danger stalks all around her, God speaks soothing, encouraging, strengthening words to us.
“Dare we trust this voice, which whispers like a breath deep inside us, raising hope in spite of dark headlines, inviting us to follow its lead into the future? We can’t know for a certainty, of course, till we get to where the Voice points us, just as Moses was told he’d know the Exodus was a success only when it succeeded. (See Exod. 3:12.) But every time an individual or group decides to follow his Way, some aspect of Jesus walks again on this earth.
“Jesus’ ultimate challenge to us — the provocation behind all other challenges — is this: we can decide to have faith in God’s venture among us or not. In every life, in every generation, however much or little of this wisdom we have learned, that is the choice.
“On our decision angels, ancestors, and all our descendants as well wait with bated breath.”