Santa Claus during the homily

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GIANT bit of real estate between statues and images of Saints for devotion and people dressing up for a costume play.
 
Santa Claus is not a saint. He is a commercial figure who lives at the north pole with elves and reindeer and his wife, Mrs. Claus.

St. Nicholas is a saint, and his feast day is December 6, not December 25. St Nicholas has nothing to do with the Feast of the Nativity.
 
Deacons and priests are ordained to preach. CA reviewers are not ordained to critique. Having said that, let me do it too: a very creative and interesting way of injecting not commercial Santa into Christianity but Christianity into commercial Santa. Jesus used mustard seeds, lepers, fishing, loaves and fishes, centurions, wine, and all sorts to make a point. Each was not a part of tradition and powerful for that reason. Sometimes i imagine commentators on liturgy on CA.
 
The children at my church get to see one of our deacons dress as St. Nicholas (not Santa Claus) and hear him tell the story at an Advent party, but never during Mass.
 
I’m assuming the family who wore Santa hats to and during midnight Mass should not have done so. Tried my hardest to ignore them.
 
Where do we Americans get the idea that costumes are cool for Mass just because it is Christmas?
 
1ke said:
Santa Claus is not a saint. He is a commercial figure who lives at the north pole with elves and reindeer and his wife, Mrs. Claus.

St. Nicholas is a saint, and his feast day is December 6, not December 25. St Nicholas has nothing to do with the Feast of the Nativity.
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He absolutely is St. Nicholas. Same person. Now, some may choose to ignore that, but that is who Santa is. It’s just a nickname, not a different person. http://www.catholicallyear.com/2014/12/not-believing-in-santa-claus-is-like.html
 
TheLittleLady said:
GIANT bit of real estate between statues and images of Saints for devotion and people dressing up for a costume play.
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Guessing you would’t like that our parish has the preschoolers dress up as a saint of their choice on All Saints Day, and do a procession/parade through the Church during Mass, huh?
 
The rubrics say nothing of what the people in the pews can wear.
I see no issue with it, I think it’s a cute tradition. Many families I know do the same thing.
 
ktmeyer said:
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1ke:
Santa Claus is not a saint. He is a commercial figure who lives at the north pole with elves and reindeer and his wife, Mrs. Claus.

St. Nicholas is a saint, and his feast day is December 6, not December 25. St Nicholas has nothing to do with the Feast of the Nativity.
Click to expand...
He absolutely is St. Nicholas. Same person. Now, some may choose to ignore that, but that is who Santa is. It’s just a nickname, not a different person. http://www.catholicallyear.com/2014/12/not-believing-in-santa-claus-is-like.html
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So because some blogger likes to conflate the present-day commercial Santa with the historical Saint Nicholas, I’m supposed to turn my brain off and agree? Well, it’s on the internet so it must be true.

St Nicholas is a real person, and a Saint in the Catholic Church.

The name “Santa Claus” may be a derivative of the Saint’s name in some language or other, fine.

But his costume and all the trappings of the modern Santa Claus have nothing to do with the Saint.

Saint Nicholas does not live at the North Pole. He is in the presence of the Living God among the other Saints and God’s holy angels.

Saint Nicholas does not now, nor did he ever, build toys and deliver them to every home of good little children around the world on Christmas Eve.

Saint Nicholas did not use flying reindeer to travel his diocese and minister to his flock.

Now I have no problem with children believing in Santa or not – that is their parents’ prerogative.

But to say that Santa Claus IS Saint Nicholas is to completely ignore reality, history, and theology.
 
This thread makes me sad.

We are talking about one day, one Mass,
I have seen Santa (he was a Deacon) at Children’s Mass before. It was a wonderful thing, He gave the homily with Father, talked about being kind, and the importance of loving each other and that while Santa is fun and brings presents, the best present we ever got was from God when He sent us His Son.

Now, I suppose that there were a few who thought it was inappropriate and called the Pastor and the Bishop.
The Bishop even addressed it in a column. Basically said that he trusts his priests and that nothing in his diocese happens without his knowledge and that the “rubrics police” need to remember that the law was made for man, not man for the law.
 
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You missed the point. Catholic writers can try to shoehorn Santa into St Nicholas, but Santa is an invention of the American colonial period, and not Catholic. “Santa” in the US is a man who lives at the north pole with flying reindeer, elves, and Mrs. Claus.

Santa Claus is an amalgam of Pere Noel/Father Christmas and vestiges of St Nicholas. Santa Claus takes his name from the Dutch Sinterklaas but most everything else from the English Father Christmas, which is NOT based on St Nicholas.

Saint Nicholas and Sinterklaas, the European gift giver is in bishop’s attire and brings gifts Dec 6.

I have no problem with Santa at all. But Santa in his American incarnation is not St Nicholas and doesn’t try to be.
 
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A saint parade should be before the beginning of Mass or after Mass (i.e. after the concluding rite), not during Mass. So it depends upon when these children were parading. We have a saint parade every year, it comes at the end of mass after the concluding rite.
 
Dlee said:
I’m assuming the family who wore Santa hats to and during midnight Mass should not have done so. Tried my hardest to ignore them.
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I think we should just be happy that a family is at Mass as a family on Christmas and not worry about what they are wearing.
But that’s just me. As shown by the endless long threads on here about “what one should wear to Mass”, many people disagree.
 
I would hope that every Mass is reverent and not a show.

Depicting St Nicolas as if the saint were identical to the popular advertising gimmick, that perpetrator of materialism, is particularly unacceptable.
 
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