This past weekend I participated in a Christmas ritual that many parents struggle with: a visit with Santa Claus.
Why the struggle? For some parents, Christmas and Santa Claus go together like white and red striping on candy canes. You cannot separate the two. Santa is everywhere and just about every culture. For others, Christmas and Santa are a clashing pair like fruitcake and tofu. Many Christians lament telling the myth of Santa Claus to their children because they believe it sends the wrong message of Christmas: The holiday is about getting presents from a jolly fat guy and not the celebration of Christ’s birth.
At the same time, parents do not want to be a Grinch about Santa. Nobody likes that kid in school going around telling everyone that Santa isn’t real. Parents are then confronted with the reality of explaining how and why Santa is not real. Either parents go with the flow of Santa or become Santa haters.
Is there a better way to involve Santa Claus into the Christmas mythos? Can Santa Claus can be taught from a Christian perspective? Can we work Santa into Christmas without tearing out the hearts of little children?
Today, we can thank the Dutch for Santa Claus. The Dutch celebrate Christmas with Sinterklaas (also, Black Peter, but that is a whole other mess) who teaches children about giving, generosity, and service. He even looks like Santa. Sinterklaas then morphed into Santa Claus when English peoples adopted him for their own celebrations. Once English speaking peoples adopted Sinterklaas as Santa Claus, he became a commercialized icon.
The figure of Sinterklaas was a Dutch effort to honor a fourth century saint name Nicholas, who is highly revered in Eastern Christianity. The historical figure, Saint Nicholas, was a bishop of Myra. Several stories exist about Nicholas, but the most prevalent features Nicholas giving gold or money to poor children. One story tells of Nicholas giving money to three poor daughters who were destined to live in poverty without a dowry (pictured right). Some attribute the hanging of stockings on Christmas to Nicholas because another story tells of Nicholas putting money in poor children’s socks.
