I was boning up on some of my Christmas trivia today and came across this website:
Santa Claus: the Great Imposter
Can religion and secular mythology be reconciled during the holiday season?
The author of this article describes in great detail how and why Santa is not the innocent childhood fantasy but an influence of Satan in disguise. He quotes the Bible, hymns and carols which support his argument. Check it out if you are curious. I'm not going to dwell on his theory. This is something intended to bring people to faith but as I read it all I could think about was Saturday Night Live when Dana Carvey use to do that Church Lady sketch. Much like Dana Carvey, I don't think that by teaching our children about Santa Claus is urging them to worship the devil.
I came across this extremist view before. I had a friend whose parents were very strict. She couldn't go trick-or-treating on Halloween, they never had an egg hunt on Easter, and Christmas was celebrated by going to church and then home where their sole decoration was a Nativity Set and no presents in sight. While it is not for me to judge what they found appropriate, there are beneficial results in urging your children to believe in fantasies. If you can succeed in opening your child's mind to something outside the realm of the literal, black, white fact you urge them to develop an imagination and sense of creativity. This spawns an ability to see things in a different way which is a trait already so rare in most people.
In the case of Santa, believing in him is not the problem. I think it is possible to teach kids about God and tell stories about Santa Claus. As long as it is done with some kind of tact, I don't think you will see kids putting Santa altars up and forgetting the baby Jesus. Parents are not idiots. If you want to draw lines I imagine all the "once upon a times..." Go out the window with the Tooth Fairy, Peter Cotton Tail...Etc....What kind of childhood would that be like? As adults this former belief in there being Father Christmas evolves, and what we love about Santa is that he becomes a physical representation to what we all feel inside ourselves this time of year, Christmas Spirit. This is goodwill, adoration for our fellow man, and for a lot of people this is thanksgiving for the birth of the Savior.
Though it is only a matter of moving an "n" from Santa to Satan, I am not convinced that they are the same guy.
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