It seems a lot of folks are posting varying angles on Christmas, which I might add, more and more is becoming a bi-word in light of the political correctness creeping across this formerly great land of ours like a sinister shadow growing as the sun slowly fades behind the horizon.  Take away what once was a very strong part of American culture to please other cultures and you  take away its backbone for the sake of "other nation's ideals" and "ideals of others who have never stood for truth, justice and the American way".., thats what I say and I stand by it as corny as that may sound to some.

 

            However - I digress somewhat.  Christmas is not about America. Christmas is about the greatest gift born to mankind from God above;  Jesus Christ.  My views on Christmas are complex and sometimes appears in conflict to those who haven't a clue of what I'm talking about.      Lets face it. I have not mastered the fine art of verbal communication / expression, and that translates over into my writing..., and yet my writing is more concise than my speaking - Yikes!

            The early Christians did not celebrate Christmas and was not an integral function of the Church.. This is a Roman Catholic Church tradition. Non the less, there is no great evil in celebrating the birth of Christ Jesus.  The greatest evil in Christmas today - is the sharing the spotlight of a mythical figure, Santa Clause.  This red suited Santa is an overblown extrapolation of a very real fellow referred to as Saint Nicholas (aka St Nick) - and in no way was he able to fly in a sled with reindeer and deliver toys all over the world in a single night, and all that other jive.  This Santa Clause is a mythical figure based on a lie, not the real person for whom it is attributed.

 

            Which brings me to the evil of Santa Clause. Oh come on.., don't look at me like that.  How many times have some of you claimed you hate liars? And you're going to carry this, Santa, lie over onto your children? It seems we (fingers point at me as well) are really big on principles until it hits home, then its a different story as we start in justifying our right to lie to our kids and other children.

            As you may know, I'm not Santa Clause, but I played one on Tv.., well.., not actually on Tv - but in the Mall - once upon a time.  And I shared in the lie and became a principle player in perpetuating this ages old custom. To be honest, I felt like one major creep when I lied to the kiddies who sat on my lap, pouring out their hearts for a commercial Christmas. Christ held no meaning for these children.   Pay attention class.., this is going to get dicey...

            To pseudo quote John Lennon, "Santa Clause is more famous (with kids) than Jesus Christ". And thats the reality. Let me see. CHRIST-MAS or SANTA -MAS? What holiday is that again?  I dunno - toss me a bone here. And this red suited demi-god, is going to hog Christ's spotlight. Dude! Its JESUS BIRTHDAY PARTY! Not Santa's. Incidentally Christ's actual birth-date is unknown;  December 25th is just a selected day to celebrate Jesus birth.., and lets leave it at that to keep this entry simple as possible.

 

        To Fellow Christians; it's an outright shame to share a lie in line with Christ.    Christ and liars don't mix.  I have ran into a few atheists who got their start this way. They found out Santa did not exist, so they reasoned that this Christ who knows when you were bad or good just like St. Nick, had to be a part of the big fraud.  And who's the blame? The atheist who was created because of the lies told in association with a real Christ? No, the child is not at fault.

        Certainly not all atheists became atheists because of this fact alone, but a large number of them have it as a root source. It's not the kid's fault. So who's fault is it? The parent who played the Santa game full out, that's who.  This is a case of, "The truth hurts" and the old defensive mechanism kicks in to justify or dance around the issue (been there, done that, lost the T-shirt).

 

            I am not for one minute claiming perfection, nor am I hinting that I am better than anyone else. Even so, I have taken great pains to never teach my daughter that Santa was a viable person. I explained to her what Christmas was about and that this Santa dude is just a fictional character made up for fun and has nothing to do with Christ despite the "Saint Nicholas" reference.  She has not been the worse for it, however conflict of interest arose when (the then wife) Ditsy, turned around to insist to our daughter Santa was Real and went as far as to suggest Jesus was Santa.  I'm sorry - but talk about overkill..., you have an idea why I call her Ditsy.

 

            Let me digress again; Not every child is ruined when they discover Santa is a lie, and they don't all confuse Santa with Christ. BUT the harm is still set in stone. A subconscious message is embedded that reads, "it's okay to lie, it's okay to deceive".  When we tell a child it's wrong to lie or to deceive and we go to great lengths to pass Santa off as a reality - that's an outright conflict of interest even if you are not religious.

 

I haven't even touched on the commercialism, nor the fact that our children learns, "Happiness is gained with Material Things".  Children can easily get caught up into this materialism thing and again, associates it with.., Christmas, and of Christmas, Santa who gives them things to be happy. Seldom is Christ the fore figure in their thoughts.

 

            This has been my view of Christmas that I have not seen covered elsewhere.  I ask you please, keep Christ in - and don't let your child confuse the mythical figure of  Santa with reality.   I can't order anyone to do as I do, nor view things my way and I wont even try.  I'm simply hoping to appeal to your sense of reason and let the reader take it from there.

            When I was a child (yes, I really was at one time) before they started going to Church, my parents pulled the Santa ruse off with cunning.  We had the X-mas tree up and not one gift under it, not even on Christmas Eve. But Christmas morning "WOW!"  All those colorful wrapped packages were brimming from under the tree. "Santa made his delivery" we kids were told.  Personally I didn't fully buy into it. We didn't even have a chimney for Pete's sake... by the way.., who is this Pete guy and what does he have to do with this?  Bah.., never mind about Pete for now. AHEM! Anyways..,

            While I personally did not turn atheist, the whole thing about Santa and Christ did cause me some concern, and yep I had even considered the possibility that since Santa was fake and the parents and the public at large went to such great lengths to make him look real, why not Christ Jesus?  Rare is the child who does not ponder this UNLESS they were told the truth from the start.   There is a wisdom to HONESTY.

 

            The Bible tells us no liar will have any part of the world to come. So I ask, how much more so if we lie to our children.., children that Jesus loves dearly?  As a Christian, dare I train my child to lie and be an example of how to deceive?  I'm sorry, but I can't do it. Not intentionally anyway.

For the record - I am not passing Judgment on the Reader.  That's for the Reader to do for his/her own self.