A Christian lobby group, based in Cape Town (South Africa) is tired of the commercialism of Christmas, according to the local Times newspaper. Although they will keep buying their children Christmas presents (!), they want to get the focus off Father Christmas, and back to Jesus.
The “new pagan God of materialism”, they call the poor guy, and go on by saying that the true reason for celebrating Christmas is forgotten in the mad rush to buy presents.
This could well be true. The thing is – how do you amend that by killing off Santa, if the mad rush continues anyway? Isn’t it better to let Santa stay on as the God of materialism, than to give that role to the infant Jesus?
I’m all for reducing materialism for Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Halloween – you name it. Pagan and religious celebrations alike, they’ve all been “stolen” and corrupted by the retail industry. In our modern society, based on consumerism, we fall for it, too.
What about Santa then? Santa Claus (St. Nicholas) was originally a Catholic saint. Not pagan at all. He became a saint partly because of his giving nature and generosity towards the poor. Christ was given symbolic gifts by the Magi – and so Luther (you know, the guy who invented Protestantism), who wasn’t keen on saints, moved the whole giving thing from December 6th (St Nicholas Day) to Christmas, so that people who would convert to his version of the Faith, wouldn’t miss out on a celebration. Nothing new here. It’s been done since Christianity was born. It’s highly unlikely, for example, that Christ was born in December. However, so as to not deprive the newly reformed Christians of their pagan celebrations altogether, Christmas was “put” near Winter Solstice (Dec.21st), when most pagan cults had a celebration anyway. Ingenious and wise. Less unwilling people to slay for the Cause.
My point. I think I had one somewhere. Oh, yes. The way we celebrate Christmas is a choice we make, along with the reason for celebrating. The tradition is, by nature, a mixture of paganism, Christianity, newish inventions (like the Christmas tree – invented in Germany in the beginning of the last century – didn’t that just become all the rage…) and the new God: Materialism. What we choose to make of it is up to us.
As for me, I happily embrace a mixture of all this, and I throw in one more thing: family values. Giving presents is a symbol, it’s something we do to please our loved ones, and that’s OK. I would do that without Santa – I’d even do it without Jesus. If presents were out of the question, I’d still find a way to celebrate.
Stumble it!
