Santa Claus is blasphemous

  • Thread starter Thread starter kbwall
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I’m not interested in santa and won’t be highlighting him although my wife is interested so I will go along with it when they start to understand but it won’t go over the top.

My main point will be to make sure that they understand the real meaning, the Birth of our Lord and that this is the most important thing at Christmas.

I am looking forward to starting the Christmas Novena of Rosaries with them preceding Christmas when they can pray. The prayers will be great, the family praying together will be great and they will know they are just a few days away from Christmas itself.

❤️
 
kbwall said:
I don’t even have to go into the fact that most of the imagery surrounding Santa Claus is Pagan in origin. That’s nothing but a cheap shot. There’s so many other reasons to hate Santa. Also, I am in no way against the blessed Saint Nicholas, he was a good guy. I’m not talking about an olden day saint who gave toys to poor children who had nothing, I’m talking about the guy in a red suit with elves and magical reindeer.

First off, it’s nothing but a blatant lie. I don’t care how much people try to butter it up by calling it childhood innocence. What is that supposed to mean anyway? It is nothing more than a lie, pure and simple. You’re telling them something that you know good and well is not true, sounds like a lie. Just to go into the further illogical-ness of it, many parents are upset when the truth is exposed. Many tiptoe around the subject when kids are around, like it’s something sacred. It’s nothing but a lie people! Parents shouldn’t be mad somebody told their kid the truth. Oh, and just like real lies, it requires more and more lies to keep it going. Best example: Telling kids that mall Santas are Santa’s helpers when kids get smart enough to realize Santa can’t be at every mall every Christmas.

Second, Santa takes away the main focus of the holiday, which is Jesus. Christmas has become a secular holiday, for the most part. And no, calling them “Christmas Trees” instead of “Holiday Trees” doesn’t help. That whole “Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays” is trivial and stupid, they’re nothing but words. Christmas has become secular all on its own, as it has essentially become national gift giving day, with almost no religious conotations to it at all. Santa has almost completely replaced Jesus.

And many conservatives try to blame liberals/atheists on the seculariation of Christmas. Nope, you guys did that all on your own. Let’s see, you took your religious holiday, purposefully removed all the religious symbolism, and replaced it with Santa, deer, elves, etc. You then essentially demanded the holiday take center stage in American culture, knowing full well that not all of America was Christian. And now they’re mad because they’ve essentially lost their holiday. No, you didn’t lose it, you gave it away and have only yourselves to blame.

Third, it’s stupid. OK, not a sin, but a valid point still. Go through the trouble of getting your child a Christmas present, and then giving credit to a guy who doesn’t even exist for no apparent reason. What a bizarre custom.

Fourth, it sends kids a horrible message. I saved the worst for last, as there are two bad messages Santa sends children. The first being that it’s OK to lie to people. I’ve already explained how Santa is a lie with my first point. The second message is its ties to religion. Let’s see, let’s convince our children that there’s an old guy with a beard. Even though you’ve never seen him or met him, he will reward you if you’re good. Hmm, sound famliar? There’s a reason atheists call God “Santa for adults”. Also, kids usually learn about God and Santa from the same source (their parents), so when one is found to be false, why should they believe anything their parents say about God? The fact that this blatant lie is also centered around one of the biggest Christian holidays doesn’t help matters either.

I’m not trying to say God is as fake as Santa. What I’m saying is that teaching your kids about Santa makes them more likely to doubt God.
Click to expand...
This time of the year can be stressful. There are parties to go to, gifts to buy, family get-togethers, and memories of dead family and friends and of broken relationships. When the adults are stressed, the children know- and they start to get cranky and restless. I think the modern idea of Santa Claus is just an added incentive adults use to further motivate children to behave themselves.
 
Just to pitch in on the side of the OP, because I haven’t seen anything like that, my husband and I don’t do Santa, for pretty much the same reasons as OP talks about. I don’t like the idea of a persistent, useless lie to my children in a way that actually does take focus about what Christ-Mass is about. Some white lies have a function that outweighs their wrongness as lies. I told my over-curious younger son there is an alligator in the crawlspace under our house. No, there’s not really one under there. It’s a lie. But it keeps him out of a very dangerous place he’d otherwise scootch right into. Santa doesn’t perform any such function.

And, despite all the sickly-sweet paintings of Santa kneeling next to the manger, he does take away focus from the Christ Child. Added to that sending your kid to public school–no Jesus there–and crazy old aunts who just about jam Santa Claus down our throats, Jesus gets strangled right out of the picture. All the pretty sentiments about Santa as a figurehead for the goodness of giving, he does steal the scene. You can try to teach any kid about Jesus’s birthday, but what do they end up talking about? Santa Claus. We want, in our house, a focus on the birth of Jesus Christ. When one of the kids mentions Santa, we say, “In our house, we say ‘Saint Nicholas.’”

I do get kind of hot and bothered about it, because we have to deal with a lot of relatives going above our heads with our kids. (See the two crazy aunts above and their nineteen Santa emails and letters for three kids, when we’ve said “We don’t do Santa.”) I get pretty fired up when I hear the “Oh it’s just a little fun, it won’t do any harm” argument applied to justifying the breaking of many rules. I don’t care if it won’t do any harm, I’m the parent and I made the decision. I don’t care if you dance naked around a tree with your kids chanting Santa Lives; in our house, we don’t do Santa, because good intentions or not, it distracts from the real reason this day is any different from any other day.

I have a tough time trying to refocus my kids on Christ when Santa is in the competition. I understand he has a great message and is an example to the whole world, but he is a lie without a justifying function (for us). It’s difficult trying to teach little kids the importance of Christmas not being about getting or giving presents or any of that ****, when we’re bombarded with materialistic messages supported by the Coca-Cola style Santa Claus, and nowhere near enough child-eating-butcher-stopping style Saint Nicholas.

This all sounds very vehement, and I don’t mean it to. At the moment my kids are driving me nuts and it’s coming out here. Long story short, I don’t like Santa. My parents did it when I was a kid and it didn’t have anything to do with my religious search, I never felt alienated when I found out he was a story, and I’m pretty sure “Santa” and “Satan” being anagrams of each other are coincidence. But, nice guy that he is, he gets in the way of teaching my kids about Christmas, so he had to go. Sorry, crazy aunts, the kids will not be slobbering over creepy letters from Santa in unbridled anticipation.
 
Anyone who thinks it’s lying or teaching children to lie when you write, From: Santa on a Christmas gift needs to stop underestimating the intelligence of their children. Children know Santa Claus living at the North Pole and visiting every house in the world in one night is a fantasy.
Children know the tooth fairy is a fantasy, the Easter bunny is a fantasy, Frosty the snowman fits right in too.
Every time you let your children watch a movie on TV do you panic and frantically explain that it’s just fantasy and a lie.
You better look out or Snow White is gonna git ya.
 
adopted_heir said:
Just to pitch in on the side of the OP, because I haven’t seen anything like that, my husband and I don’t do Santa, for pretty much the same reasons as OP talks about. I don’t like the idea of a persistent, useless lie to my children in a way that actually does take focus about what Christ-Mass is about. Some white lies have a function that outweighs their wrongness as lies. I told my over-curious younger son there is an alligator in the crawlspace under our house. No, there’s not really one under there. It’s a lie. But it keeps him out of a very dangerous place he’d otherwise scootch right into. Santa doesn’t perform any such function.
Click to expand...
You won’t lie about a kindly old gentleman that brings presents, but you lie about about a child eating alligator???:eek:
 
Buck_Crosswhite said:
Anyone who thinks it’s lying or teaching children to lie when you write, From: Santa on a Christmas gift needs to stop underestimating the intelligence of their children. Children know Santa Claus living at the North Pole and visiting every house in the world in one night is a fantasy.
Children know the tooth fairy is a fantasy, the Easter bunny is a fantasy, Frosty the snowman fits right in too.
**Every time you let your children watch a movie on TV do you panic and frantically explain that it’s just fantasy and a lie.**You better look out or Snow White is gonna git ya.
Click to expand...
LOL. 👍

I would expect that (the bolded) from Judge Reinhold’s character in The Santa Clause

😉
 
Buck_Crosswhite said:
Anyone who thinks it’s lying or teaching children to lie when you write, From: Santa on a Christmas gift needs to stop underestimating the intelligence of their children. Children know Santa Claus living at the North Pole and visiting every house in the world in one night is a fantasy.
Children know the tooth fairy is a fantasy, the Easter bunny is a fantasy, Frosty the snowman fits right in too.
Every time you let your children watch a movie on TV do you panic and frantically explain that it’s just fantasy and a lie.
You better look out or Snow White is gonna git ya.
Click to expand...
WHAT ARE YOU SAYING ???

:bighanky::bighanky::bighanky::bighanky::bighanky:
 
I’ve been following this thread for a bit and I agree with those who tend to say that Santa Claus is harmless fun, and that to be harsh and rigid in how we talk about this issue really can damage some peoples’ faith. I point to the words of St. John of Kanty, whose feast we celebrate tomorrow: “Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause.”

This insight is quite applicable here. We must begin with ourselves–if we cannot learn not to take ourselves too seriously, then we will take our faith too seriously. It ceases to be a love affair with Love Himself, a joyous search for truth. It becomes dry, arid, joyless rigor, and we soon attempt to spread that to others. Let us continually pray, then, for the grace to see the joy in our faith and its culture.

-ACEGC
 
edward_george said:
I’ve been following this thread for a bit and I agree with those who tend to say that Santa Claus is harmless fun, and that to be harsh and rigid in how we talk about this issue really can damage some peoples’ faith. I point to the words of St. John of Kanty, whose feast we celebrate tomorrow: “Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause.”

This insight is quite applicable here. We must begin with ourselves–if we cannot learn not to take ourselves too seriously, then we will take our faith too seriously. It ceases to be a love affair with Love Himself, a joyous search for truth. It becomes dry, arid, joyless rigor, and we soon attempt to spread that to others. Let us continually pray, then, for the grace to see the joy in our faith and its culture.

-ACEGC
Click to expand...
… Is it possible to take your faith too seriously??? We should look at our immortal souls and just say 🤷 well, I tried… that’s good enough???
 
edward_george said:
I’ve been following this thread for a bit and I agree with those who tend to say that Santa Claus is harmless fun, and that to be harsh and rigid in how we talk about this issue really can damage some peoples’ faith. I point to the words of St. John of Kanty, whose feast we celebrate tomorrow: “Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause.”

This insight is quite applicable here. We must begin with ourselves–if we cannot learn not to take ourselves too seriously, then we will take our faith too seriously. It ceases to be a love affair with Love Himself, a joyous search for truth. It becomes dry, arid, joyless rigor, and we soon attempt to spread that to others. Let us continually pray, then, for the grace to see the joy in our faith and its culture.

-ACEGC
Click to expand...
I’m afraid fundaMENTALism has raised it’s ugly head.
 
Buck_Crosswhite said:
Children know Santa Claus living at the North Pole and visiting every house in the world in one night is a fantasy.
Click to expand...
Not so fast there with the absolutes, my friend. Way back in the olden days I did a one-year stint as a fifth grade teacher. The last day before Christmas break I had all the kiddies gathered on the reading rug, and I read them a picture book about a boy who had to comfort his little brother after he found out from some bigger kids that there was no Santa Claus.

As I was scanning my audience I noticed one student’s lips begin to quiver uncontrollably. And then his tears started rolling. I don’t know who was more mortified: me, because I’d crushed this poor 11-year-old’s fantasy; or his classmates, many of whom looked stunned that they were sharing reading rug space with a kid who still believed in Santa.

Can anyone say, “Awkward moment?”

Long story short - the heartbroken kid got hustled down to the office, where his parents came to pick him up. After the New Year his dad called me furious that his son found out in the manner that he did, and I was thinking, “Dude, what in the world kind of parent are you? He’s eleven years old for Pete’s sake! What were you planning to do, keep the hope alive until he was of legal age?”

Moral: Never assume all kids know anything. :o
 
Kinky Friedman once said
" We Jews believe it was Santa Claus who killed Jesus Christ"
I think there is a lot of truth in that.
 
A further point of concern for me is Easter.
I suspect the secularists and marketing people having seen the huge success they have had with subverting Christmas will try and do the same with Easter. I notice it even here in SOuth Africa. On these dreadful radio stations there is an attempt to commercialize Easter. The Easter Bunny makes his appearance earlier and earlier at the shops. Also they try and sell Hot Cross Buns throughout the year by putting an X on them not a Cross. I will not eat hot cross buns out of season.
In South Africa we now also have a major effort to make Halloween into something. I realize that Halloween is a big thing in North America but here it was until about 15 years ago almost unheard of. Yet each October now we see ghouls and ghots costumes in the shops. The radio stations have competions and parties etc etc. The marketing guys are very persistent and their God is money. We all need to be aware of the ongoing secularization of our holidays.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top