December 2, 2006

  • Guess who?

    He's omniscient, omnipresent, immortal, dwelling and reigning from on high, coming to judge the world, coming soon, and coming from the heavens.  He loves the children of the world, will reward those who have faith like little children, knows what we need, and will give whatever we ask in his name.  Who is it?

    If you answered Jesus Christ... you're wrong.  It's Santa Claus.  Sound blasphemous?  It is, but we'll get to that later.  First, the origin of Santa Claus.

    The early Germanics called their chief god Yolnir, who in time lent his name to their new year's festival.  We know it as Yule.  Yule was a twelve night new year's festival that later became associated with the winter solstice.  Over the centuries, Yolnir was renamed Woden, later Odin.  The old Germanics thought him to be a cosmic outlaw who rode the storms on a great white stallion. In Scandinavia, Woden distributed gifts to children.  Woden was often conceived with a hag named Berchta riding the storms at his side.

    During the twelve nights of Yule, Berchta was said to visit each house, driving a wagon or riding a pale horse.  She would judge households that pleased her and curse those that did not.  To influence her decision, a meal of fish and dumplings would be left out.  Berchta's arrival later shifted to January 6.  Still later, Berchta gave rise to the kindly witch Befana in Italy, who gave gifts to good children and "tricks" (including coal) to bad children.  If they were very bad, she might carry them away to the underworld.

    Not much is known about the real Saint Nicholas; he was a bishop that faced persecution during the reigns of the Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximilian.  He was set free when Constantine converted to Christianity and eventually he rose to the rank of archbishop.  Legend, however, says much more about him.  The most famous legend involved his throwing bags of gold into the house of a poor nobleman so that his three daughters could have dowries and get married.  This legend announced his qualifications to succeed Woden and Berchta as the giver of Yuletide gifts.  Tradition holds that Nicholas died on January 6, which became the date of the feast of Saint Nicholas.

    On Saint Nicholas's Day, the mitered saint was said to ride though the air on a pale horse with his sidekick, Black Pete.  If any children needed a whipping, Pete would administer it.  After the Reformation, Protestants in Germany criticized Saint Nicholas's Day as an unwelcome Catholic holdover.  They substituted the saint with the Christkindl, or Christ child.  The baby Jesus was portrayed incongruously as a pint-sized , fast-flying bringer of gifts for good boys and girls.  He already knew if you were good or bad and, since he had the keys of death and hell, had no need of a sinister sidekick.  Naturally, he came on his own feast day- Christmas.  When the Nicholas tradition returned, children had come to expect their gifts on Christmas, and Black Pete never regained the same popularity.

    How did Santa become popular in England and America (countries that didn't even celebrate Christmas)?  In 1809, Washington Irving published an enormously popular satirical history of New York under the pseudonym Knickerbocker.  In it, he made it seem like the Dutch founders of New York made Saint Nicholas's Day the pivot around which their whole year revolved.  Starting 1829, A Visit From Saint Nicholas (more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas) became wildly popular.  It replaced the tall, thin, and mitered bishop with a short, rotund, and jolly elf; it replaced the horse and wagon with reindeer and sleigh.  From 1862 to 1886, Thomas Nast drew pictures of Santa for Harper's Weekly magazine that completed the rest of Santa lore.

    So what's wrong with Santa?

    1. To teach and perpetuate the Santa Claus myth, parents must lie to their children. Lying is sin (Exodus 20:16, Proverbs 12:22, Ephesians 4:25, Colossians 3:9).  Any imagined benefits that come from this myth never make up for the destruction of the trust of children in their parents.
    2. Many attributes of God are given to Santa. God makes it clear that He is a jealous God and will not give His glory to any other (Exodus 20:5, Isaiah 42:8).  Isn't it funny that if you put the "n" in "Santa" at the end, it becomes "Satan"?
    3. Many parents imbue in their children the fear of Santa.  We are to fear God (Proverbs 16:6, Ecclesiastes 12:13), not Santa.
    4. The Santa myth causes children to set their hearts on temporal things, instead of eternal things (Matthew 6:19-21, Colossians 3:1-2, 2 Corinthians 4:18, 1 Timothy 6:10, 1 John 2:15).
    5. Children behave to receive gifts, not to honor their parents (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:1-2, Colossians 3:20).
    6. Children are ungrateful for their gifts because they believe that they have earned them and deserve them (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

    If parents want to introduce their children to Santa at all, they should at least make clear that he does not exist.