Do you see what's happening here?
Santa Claus is kneeling in front of Jesus.
Does anyone else see a problem with this?
My mother-in-law came and decorated our house for Christmas this year. We had just moved into a new house and so we didn't have time to put up a tree or anything so she graciously offered to come up and help out. She brought with her boxes filled with random knick-knacks to put around the house. One of them, which she decided should go right on our coffee table, was this lovely item. I didn't recognize it right away, but after walking by it a dozen times, I really looked at it and realized just how ridiculous this item really is. And that it symbolizes something really interesting about our culture. There is so much wrong with this thing, I don't know where to begin.
First.
Let's start with the not-so-obvious. Why does Jesus, a Jew from Nazareth, look like he's Irish? Red hair? Super pale skin? Why? Why is it so important to so many people to make Jesus into a "white" man? Can Americans really not handle worshiping a savior with a brown tint to His skin?
Next.
A much more obvious question... Did Santa travel back in time to get there? St. Nicholas is supposed to have been born in Patara, an ancient city in Turkey, between 260-280 AD. How did he make it to this particular event that happened 280 years before his birth?
Last one.
I'm all for putting the Christ back in Christmas, but I think it's important to remember that Christmas is a hijacked holiday. We don't have to join together the old traditions with the new, Santa being the old, and Jesus' birth being the new. It's okay to recognize where Christmas really came from. And it's not a happy story.
Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the week-long celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
Sound like Christmas to you?
Of course Christians eventually changed this festival by declaring Jesus' birth, which no one can clearly pinpoint, was to be celebrated on the 25th of December. It took a few centuries for this to really catch on, but eventually Christianity was able to wrench away this horrible festival from the pagans and turned it into what it is today.
In conclusion.
Christmas is great, but don't take it too seriously. It's just a made-up holiday. Don't forget that.
