Tuesday, December 23, 2008

what does santa add?

In the comments for my Santa post below ('Is Santa a LIE?') Dan asked quite a useful question -

"What does Santa add? How does he help us to remember and celebrate (to reference an Australian songwriter) 'our God come near'?"

Any ideas?

9 comments:

  1. Funnily enough, the day you plug my blog is the day I write a Santa post of my very own.

    I think Santa (at the very least St Nick) adds to the fabric of the "Christmas" tradition of generosity.

    I think opposition to Santa is hollow iconoclasm - Santa is a figurehead for the commercialisation of Christmas. I don't understand why we get so caught up in a fictional character.

    I don't know any child who blindly believes Santa is real. I don't know any parents who seek to deceive their children regarding Santa. Any more than they actually arrest their children when playing cops and robbers. Even if their parents, like mine did, maintain the charade. Calling him out as a fake is poor form - it's like yelling out in the middle of the Titanic movie "the ship sinks"...

    Santa is not the cause of the commercialisation of Christmas.

    What does Christmas add? Why is Christmas a bigger deal for us than Easter?

    To me, Santa adds a sense of fun to the end of the year - and is a chance to buy horrid gifts for colleagues under the guise of anonymity.

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  2. I feel I should define my "figurehead" v "not cause of" statement regarding commercialism - Santa was around before commercialisation, in the same way that nativity scenes were. We don't need to kill him off just because he's been bastardised to a greater extent by the corporate world (eg Coke). I guess it comes down to a question of parental preference.

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  3. And finally, to actually address Dan's question.

    Nothing. But I don't think "he" takes anything away either. Commercialisation and culture do that without the help of a fat jolly guy in a red suit.

    I'll stop now.

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  4. I don't think he adds or takes away anything from Christmas. My two-year-old thinks Santa is a member of the Wiggles, so for me I don't want santa to give him the one present that he is getting this year. Maybe next year if he is asking if santa will come etc. I probably won't deny him that enjoyment, but I don't see the point right now. if that makes sense.

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  5. Reflecting on Stuss' comment, I've noticed with our boys, who get multiple presents from us, there can be a tendency to just want more and more presents rather than enjoying what they've actually been given. In my family Santa was a way for Mum and Dad to give each child only one (significant) present, while still getting us a few extra little things under the guise of santa. I think this helped to alleviate the 'where's the next present?' attitude.

    On a more general note I agree with Nathan (that was hard to write). I'd add that I think it's fine for us to be part of our culture where it doesn't conflict with following Jesus. And especially since Christmas is at least as much a cultural festival as it is a Biblical festival anyway, it's appropriate for us to have a cultural celebration (eg time with family, gift giving, santa etc), as well as reflecting on the birth of Jesus from the Bible.

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  6. Thanks Simone for reposting my question.

    I'm interested by the outworking and consequences of the position that Christmas is as much an Australian/Western cultural tradition as it is about celebrating and remembering the incarnation of God.

    I suppose one benefit of taking the position that there are two things happening at Christmas saves us the mental gymnastics of explaining why gift-giving and large meals has anything to do (directly) with God becoming flesh. However it seems to also allow many opportunities for being distracted from celebrating the goodness of God to us in Christ (and I'm easily distracted).

    Do you have other thoughts, either for yourselves or for children, about how to keep these two sides of the tradition in the right balance?

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  7. Because we had our family Christmas on Christmas Eve this year, we made Christmas 'Jesus' Birthday' and had a cake with candles. (hey, I have a two-year-old.)

    But who needs santa - we have grandparents!

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  8. Dan,

    Why celebrate the Christian tradition at all. I don't want to go playing the devil's advocate (particularly if Santa is in fact Satan...) - but it seems to me it's an arbitrary date chosen for it's appropriate position in the pagan calendar...

    Don't get me wrong, I think Christmas is great, and I think the evangelistic chance it presents is also a positive thing. But attaching significance to it on the basis of "tradition" seems just as wrong to me as ignoring the tradition for the sake of commercialism.

    I think it's useful for Christians, as a tradition, to remember the incarnation - but I think Easter is where it's at personally. I also wonder why we don't celebrate the incarnation and sing the good, theologically strong carols all year round?

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