Priest says there's no Santa during Epiphany Mass!

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Well, not exactly, but I’m hot. :mad:

Last night at the closing comments, he made the remark saying our image of Santa was created by Coca Cola advertising in the 30’s. And St Nick is not Santa. The jest of his little talk was Christmas is over-commercialized, but we Catholics still have the tradition of gift giving on the feast day. And this was at a ‘teen mass’, lots of younger children present.

And of course my daughter asked while we were leaving if its true Santa was made by Coca Cola. :confused:

Told her no, unfortunately Father is mistaken.

Wrote a very long email today to this Priest explaining how wrong he is about Coca Cola originating the image, who did originate it, its history. Then told him about all the customary historical celebrations for the feast of St Nick, and how it relates to modern Santa. That this indeed was a Catholic holiday, even Luther tried to abolish it during the reformation & replace it with Kris Kringle. That yes, Virgina, there is a Santa Clause, & it originates with the celebration & European customs of the Catholic feast of St Nicholas, brought over & resurrected by the Dutch to the New World at New Amsterdam.

Sorry, had to vent.:takethat:
 
From stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=35

"Santa was then portrayed by dozens of artists in a wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors. However by the end of the 1920s, a standard American Santa—life-sized in a red, fur-trimmed suit—had emerged from the work of N. C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and other popular illustrators. In 1931 Haddon Sundblom began thirty-five years of Coca-Cola Santa advertisements that popularized and firmly established this Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture. "
 
I’m sorry, but priests can be wrong in their actions, and for him to do that to the kids in his congregation was just obnoxious!:mad:

Commercialism or no commercialism, Coca Cola or Royal Crown, he had no right to undermine parents that way. If he doesn’t apologize, please write your bishop.
 
Wow, Santa brings a gift to the creche and places it before the “baby in the manger” at our Church on Christmas Eve. He then kneels and says a quiet prayer. One time he stole the Pastor’s thunder because he snuck up to the choir loft during the homily (as I remember it). Several children saw him and started screaming “Santa”. Well the Pastor was a great sport about it and invited him down early. I’m glad that our children get to see that even “Santa” knows that the true meaning of Christmas started in a manger and the gift was wrapped in swaddling clothes.

I bet your preist gets coal next year. You can purchase it in little bags at CVS or places like that.

Merry Christmas! I refuse to take down the decorations until Jesus grows up and gets dunked by John in the Jordan (next weekend). Time sure flies, doesn’t it?
 
kage_ar said:
"Santa was then portrayed by dozens of artists in a wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors… However by the end of the 1920s, a standard American Santa—life-sized in a red, fur-trimmed suit—had emerged from the work of N. C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and other popular illustrators. In 1931 Haddon Sundblom began thirty-five years of Coca-Cola Santa advertisements that popularized and firmly established this Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture. "
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Yes!
Not only Wyeth & Rockwell proceeding Sundbloom with CocaCola, but Birch in 1906, and Nast in 1862 for Harper’s Weekly. Nast was inspired by his German recollections of St Nicholas festivals & celebrations, and a poem by Washington Irving in 1823 titled “A Visit from St Nicholas”. This same poem has been renamed, we now know it as “The Night Before Christmas”, describing Santa to millions of children over the last century.

The German custom of St Nick (still celebrated by many including my family) is shoes on the fireplace hearth Dec 5. By morning, they’re filled with candy if you’ve been a good child - St Nick keeps a list who is naughty or nice. Sound familiar? And his helper, BlackJack, started the tradition of delivering the presents by coming down the chimney.

Many of these ‘Santa’ customs can be traced to the feast & celebration of St Nicolas in the 3rd century. Conversely, the three wise men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, can only be traced to an Irish origin paper in the 8th century.

Can’t tell me Santa isn’t an old Catholic tradition!
 
I agree the priest was out of line and undermined the parents. Would he have told children from other cultures that St. Nicholas is really dead or that there is no Baba Noel? Children are entitled to their fables; they need them to develop their imaginations and begin understanding the world around them. Santa may have become commercialized, but he still symbolizes love and generosity, aspects of the Christian life. He also helps very small kids begin to understand the concept of someone “bigger” than their parents who loves them and calls them to accountability for their behavior. Fables have always and everywhere been used to teach truths to kids. Parishioners should contact the diocese.
 
Santa Claus has absolutely no place in the Church.

Come on. We are celebrating the birth of the King of Kings. God came down to earth and became one of us.

Santa Claus in modern society is synonymous with the crass commercialism and cynicism of the “holiday season”. No matter how Santa started, the modern white bearded red suited obese man that we see is secular.

Yes, my children were never told that Santa Claus was real. We tried to keep them away from other children during December…
 
PaulinVA said:
Santa Claus has absolutely no place in the Church.

Come on. We are celebrating the birth of the King of Kings. God came down to earth and became one of us.

Santa Claus in modern society is synonymous with the crass commercialism and cynicism of the “holiday season”. No matter how Santa started, the modern white bearded red suited obese man that we see is secular.

Yes, my children were never told that Santa Claus was real. We tried to keep them away from other children during December…
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Gonna sit down and agree with Pauline here. Santa is not St Nicholas; he does not wear a bishop’s miter. St Nicholas does not live in the North Pole and have elves making toys.

I agree that it’s up to parents to tell their own children, and that having Santa as a holiday tradition is a parenting decision. So it wasn’t the place or time probably to be so blunt. It would have been better for the priest to talk about St Nicholas, and read a story about him, and focus on the spiritual meaning of the holiday.

Yeah, Santa came to our church when I was a kid. It was very confusing, at least for me.
 
If we could claim St. Nicholas back from the retail industry we wouldn’t have this problem.

I agree with PaulinVA too.
Happy Three Kings day BTW.
🙂
 
wait a minute! there is no santa, but who brings me presents every year, my parents hahahahaha, yeah right 🤷
 
PaulinVA said:
Santa Claus has absolutely no place in the Church.

Come on. We are celebrating the birth of the King of Kings. God came down to earth and became one of us.

Santa Claus in modern society is synonymous with the crass commercialism and cynicism of the “holiday season”. No matter how Santa started, the modern white bearded red suited obese man that we see is secular.

Yes, my children were never told that Santa Claus was real. We tried to keep them away from other children during December…
Click to expand...
I think your last sentence is the most telling, though. While Santa Claus might not have a place at Mass, Mass is also not the place to declare there is no Santa Claus. You at least gave other children and parents the chance to handle Santa Claus the way they felt best.
 
Today’s Santa only takes kids away from the real spirit of Christmas.
 
Light_Seeker said:
Well, not exactly, but I’m hot. :mad:

Last night at the closing comments, he made the remark saying our image of Santa was created by Coca Cola advertising in the 30’s. And St Nick is not Santa. The jest of his little talk was Christmas is over-commercialized, but we Catholics still have the tradition of gift giving on the feast day. And this was at a ‘teen mass’, lots of younger children present.

And of course my daughter asked while we were leaving if its true Santa was made by Coca Cola. :confused:

Told her no, unfortunately Father is mistaken.

Wrote a very long email today to this Priest explaining how wrong he is about Coca Cola originating the image, who did originate it, its history. Then told him about all the customary historical celebrations for the feast of St Nick, and how it relates to modern Santa. That this indeed was a Catholic holiday, even Luther tried to abolish it during the reformation & replace it with Kris Kringle. That yes, Virgina, there is a Santa Clause, & it originates with the celebration & European customs of the Catholic feast of St Nicholas, brought over & resurrected by the Dutch to the New World at New Amsterdam.

Sorry, had to vent.:takethat:
Click to expand...
After some research, I have to say the priest was correct. Their were many santas in diferent costumes until the Coca Cola image became prominent. St. Nick was the first santa but not the type we have today.
 
needtoknow5 said:
After some research, I have to say the priest was correct. Their were many santas in diferent costumes until the Coca Cola image became prominent. St. Nick was the first santa but not the type we have today.
Click to expand...
But it was not his place to decide for an entire congregation that the children at that Mass should hear about Santa Claus. There is nothing wrong with believing in Santa for Catholics.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=119576
 
I agree that Santa has no place in Church, but that the priests shouldn’t create problems by saying he doesn’t exist.
 
Lujack said:
I think your last sentence is the most telling, though. While Santa Claus might not have a place at Mass, Mass is also not the place to declare there is no Santa Claus. You at least gave other children and parents the chance to handle Santa Claus the way they felt best.
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👍 That’s right on the money. Where Paul did not inflict his preference on other families, Father decided he knew better than anybody else.
 
Oooh, I’d be mad, too. It was NOT the priest’s place to state that! That is up to individual families to decide if and when how to do Santa.

If a family does not “do” Santa, that is fine. But don’t allow that family that does not do it to “spoil” it for those families who do DO SAnta!

Our creche at home has a SAnta knealing before the manger with baby Jesus.

Some priests get out of line. This sounds like one. Write some letters!
 
I never believed in Santa as a child and spent a lot of time wondering why all these people close to me were telling me lies and trying to figure out why it was wrong for me to lie, but okay for adults to do it. . .

That being said, the priest did make a valid point. It doesn’t sound like the man announced in Mass that “There is no Santa,” but rather pointed out how commercialized our view of Santa is. I personally believe we should all be talking to our children about advertizing and how it manipulates us, etc. just as much as we talk about other areas of moral development, especially considering how many advertisements our children are exposed to.

If you haven’t brought it up to your children, it’s a good opening, especially at a teen mass.

Personally, I don’t think we should tell our children lies. We’ve all heard children cry over when they discover “Santa” is not really. I have some friends who took it really hard growing up. And what are we doing this to our children for? Do the few short years of believing a lie make up for the grief of losing it? Of learning that those we trust most have told us an untruth with the purpose to deceive us?

This is what leads people to be so cynical about the Christmas season. Instead of filling our children’s heads with a fantasy that ultimately can’t be fulfilled, we should be teaching them the true joy of the birth of Jesus, and the gift that he has given all of us. Getting gifts shouldn’t be about trading good behavior for things you want, it should be about knowing that every gift you open is someone’s expression of love towards you.

I’m sorry, I know I’m going to get flamed for this, but I don’t think a priest should be obligated to perpetuate untruths. I don’t lie to children, I speak to them gently and kindly, but, if a child asks me, I don’t feel obligated to tell them something is true when I know it isn’t.🤷
 
I would be pretty angry if a priest spoiled something like that for my kids (and I’d probably tell them that Father was confused or something). I see nothing wrong with playing this age-old game (that many fond memories of my childhood Christmases are associated with) that makes kids happy and allows them to be imaginative.
 
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