Christians and Santa Claus

Joseph Clark

For Christians, Christmas has become one of

our most sacred holidays and rightfully so.

It is a time when we come together with

friends and family to celebrate the birth of our

lord and savior Jesus Christ.

However, there is one subject that tends to

cause confusion among Christians every year.

Santa Claus

To gain a proper perspective on Santa Claus

we first need to look at the celebration of

Christmas it’s self.

In the early Christian churches the birth of

Jesus was not celebrated, only his death,

burial, and resurrection.

The birth of Jesus was not celebrated until the

4th century.

Also, evidence shows that Jesus was actually

born in the spring time.

The church leaders of the 4th century decided

to hold the celebration on the 25th in order to

gain popularity among the many other winter

celebrations going on in that day.

Christmas continued for a while until in the

17th century the Puritans actually cancelled the

celebration because they found no basis for it

in the Bible.

For nearly 100 years there was no country

wide Christmas celebration allowed in the

newly founded United States, only pockets of

rebels.

In the 1820s stores saw Christmas as a good

time to advertise and began doing so.

By the 1840s it had became a wide spread

practice.

Even though Christmas had gained popularity again, it did not become a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.

Santa Claus

The legend on Santa Claus can be trace back to

a monk named St. Nicholas that lived hundreds

of years ago.

The name Santa Claus actually evolved from

Nick’s Dutch name, Sinter Klaas, a shortened

form of Sint Nikolaas (Dutch for Saint

Nicholas).

St. Nicholas was known for his charitable

giving, especially to the children.

In the 1840s stores started using a live Santa to

lure children, and their parents, into their store.

By the 1890s the Salvation Army began to

dress their employees up like Santa to earn the

money needed for the free meals they gave to

needy families.

With our celebrations today the problem is not

whether or not to include Santa Claus. The

problem is more centered on trying to use a

holiday to teach our children about Jesus.

We should be teaching our children about

Jesus all year. They should know his story

from beginning to end and all that he does for

us in everyday life.

If this has been taught all year long, then

Christmas can be a time of not only celebrating

the birth of Jesus, but also the Spirit of giving

as represented by Santa Claus.

You can use Christmas morning to explain to

them that how they feel at that moment is how

others feel when they give to them.

Instead of getting stuck on just our actions we

need to look deeper at our motives.

If we keep Christ in all our lives, and not just

Christmas, the holidays can be a great time

spent enjoying many of the modern customs

we have today without going against our faith.

Children should learn all year that every good

thing comes from God above.

This knowledge will help put Santa Claus into

the proper perspective for your children.

History has proven that commercializing

something is not always a bad thing. If

combined with the proper knowledge it can

help spread the good news of God’s son Jesus

Christ.

Shining God’s Light

www.josephclarkblog.com