Jesus vs. Santa?

Question

Our downtown illumination ceremony in Chattanooga has featured a live Nativity Scene every year since I can remember. This year, however, they opted to take out that part of the Grand Illumination. This sparked a question in my mind. How do you explain to young children about the TRUE meaning of christmas while still keeping in Traditions of the Holidays.

i plan to tell my son when he's old enough the Christmas Story and explain how Jesus made Santa and then go into what all Santa does on Christmas. Is this a good idea? I dont want to confuse him, but i don't want to burst his Santa bubble at an early age, either! What would you do?

Also, how do you feel about taking away the Christ in Christmas. It seems it's been becoming a major problem in the last 5- 10 years.

c'mon people!! i want SERIOUS answers here! Not jokes...

Guess i'll post in another forum, also!

rabban, i'm trying to think of ways to include BOTH. "jesus made santa" was just a thought. and hplyever...I know the difference.. i'm an adult ya know, that wasn't my question.

Answer 1

The whole reason we celebrate Christmas today is b/c it represents Jesus's Birthday!! That is the true meaning of Christmas, but like you said so many today put the focus so much on Santa that Jesus is forgotten. As a kid which wasn't long ago I believed in Santa but I also knew the Christmas story of how Jesus was born. My parents told me that though Santa brings presents, Jesus is what matters He was/is our gift from God. Your child can know both but please make sure he knows the real reason and when he finds out Santa isn't real he'll still know it's Jesus's Birthday. My parents did this and Christmas is one of my fav. holidays.
And the whole x-mas thing did you know that in ancient time x stood for Christ so though I hope everyone still says Christmas but either way Christ can't be removed!

Answer 2

Err, Jesus made Santa??

Anyway, we went the "hard core" route and dumped Santa altogether. Christmas at our house is all about Christ and his coming to earth. We do all the traditional stuff and our son knows about Santa's real history, but the gifts are from us. There was a stage he went through where he really wanted to believe in Santa, but we stayed the course as best we could.

The really neat thing now is that Christmas will always have the same meaning, the same excitement for him throughout his life. He doesn't miss what he never had and he's as jazzed about Christmas now as a 9 yo as he was at 5. There's no "finding out" or some jerk kid telling him the truth. We also haven't broken trust with him by pulling him into the myth and he can trust our word. We thought this was the most important thing.

Sharing the season with the deity of Santa just doesn't make any sense. If Christians are upset that Christ is loosing preeminence during his holy days, its because they've compromised and exalted Santa over him. Seriously, what does Jesus bring to the table when compared to Santa?

Answer 3

I don't think there is a problem telling him the Christmas story his first Christmas. It's not going to burst the fun with Santa.

We told our son about St. Nicholas and who he was. Catholic Crusader spelled it out well. There are some good children's books that talk about it too. We explained that nowadays, Santa coming is all pretend. He's six now and believes in Santa as much as anyone anyway. Even if you don't let your son know that Santa is pretend, you can still share the Christmas story.

We say we are celebrating Jesus' birthday and we exchange presents to celebrate that. (Santa does too). We make Jesus a birthday cake and sing happy birthday. Jesus gave us a free gift of forgiveness for our sins.

The nice thing though from my perspective is that he knows why our family values Christmas and knows the Christmas story.

Take Christ out of Christmas? I hope you are kidding. I know it used to be a pagan festival, but now we celebrate Christ's coming on that day. Those that aren't Christians can say, "Happy Holidays", and I'll reply "Merry Christmas!" I'm fine with that.

Answer 4

Please do some research on Christmas. There is nothing Christ like about it. It all stems from paganism. I am a Christian and after studying the Christmas tradition have given up the celebration of the holiday entirely. Jesus was not born on Dec 25th and if he would have wanted us to celebrate his birth then he would have given us more details of when his actual birth was. The only Birthday talked about in the Bible was the evil King Herod, that should tell you something right there. But don't take my word for it do your own study on Christmas, especially before you tell your child any thing about Santa.

Answer 5

In all seriousness, you might want to do some research into the history of Christmas to discover the "TRUE meaning" for yourself.

The birth of Christ was not celebrated as a Christian holiday until around the mid-fourth century, under the reign of Constantine. It is likely that the date (Dec. 25th) was chosen to draw focus away from more popular winter solstice festivals, such as Sol Invictus and Saturnalia in Rome and Yule in Germania. As Christianity gained favor in Europe, it was simply incorporated into existing festivals. Thus, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus with holly, mistletoe, and evergreen trees, items that have little to nothing to do with Christianity but a lot to do with the pre-Christian Germanic religions.

Santa Claus in particular has very little to do with Christianity. The modern version is derived from Nordic legends of Odin (or Wotan), the chief god of Norse and some Germanic religions. Every year at Yule, Odin would form a great hunting party with the other gods and warriors of Valhalla. In preparation for the great hunt, children would fill their boots with carrots or straw and leave them by the chimney as food for Odin's horse. Odin would repay their kindness by filling the boots with candy and gifts.

I don't intend any of this information to mock your beliefs or insinuate that you're uninformed. Most people don't know the history behind Christmas, Easter, and the other holidays of the Christian calender. I also don't assume that you'll just take what I have to say for granted, but I encourage you to research it on your own. More information will help you make a better decision about what to teach your child.

Merry (very early) Christmas!

Answer 6

The majority of Christians would rather take Christ out of Christmas than to take Santa out of Christmas!
.

Answer 7

It is sad that Jesus gets competition from Santa Claus on His birthday.

There really was a St Nicolas, who gave gifts out of His love, who believed in God and worshipped Him, even in his gift giving!

I would skip the lies, and let your child be fooled into believing in Santa by "the world".

Let TV and schoolmates teach those "magical secrets" that turn out to be lies eventually.

It seems hard to mix Jesus and Santa in a "white lie" that kids hear from your lips, and expect to be believed when you tell "the rest of the story".

How can your child believe that everyone was telling the truth about Jesus, if everyone lied about Santa?

Please, never lie! Your word is your bond, especially with children. (Our lies teach them to lie too.)

Tell about the true historical St Nicolas' good gifts, way back when.

Tell about the true historical Magi's gifts to the baby in a manger, in Bible times.

But let "the world" tell the lie that St Nicolas is also called Santa, and is still here, working miracles at Christmas. Neither confirm nor deny the lies your child will hear in school and on TV. Hopefully they will figure it out for themselves some day.

When gifts turn up that morning, act surprised, and let them believe in magic until about the age of 7.

God is the one Who "knows if you've been bad or good", not Santa. So "be good for GOD's sake!"

Focus on whose birthday it is suposed to be. (actually the Bible doesn't give His birth day)

Dec 25th was likely a date already being widely celebrated by non-Christians, picked to avoid martyrdom, since Christians were in mortal danger for their faith (like a certain Budha was used to represent Jesus in Japan, back in the early days when Christianiy was illegal there).

Focus on giving in His name, on His "birthday".

The gifts will speak for themselves. Love is the true message of God...and Christmas.

Answer 8

St. Nicholas of Myra (Also called NICHOLAS OF BARI). was a Bishop of Myra in Lycia; he died 6 December, 345 or 352. He is one of the most popular saints in the Greek as well as the Latin Church.

Some of the main points in his life are as follows: He was born at Parara, a city of Lycia in Asia Minor; in his youth he made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Palestine; shortly after his return he became Bishop of Myra; cast into prison during the persecution of Diocletian, he was released after the accession of Constantine, and was present at the Council of Nicaea. In 1087 Italian merchants stole his body at Myra, bringing it to Bari in Italy.

Answer 9

I believe in Jesus not santa. When my daughter was 3 I told her there was no such thing as santa, a leprechaun etc. She had no problem with it. In kindergarten, other kids were talking about santa, my daughter just plainly told them there is no such thing as santa and my mom buys me presents and God gives her the money!!

Answer 10

When we lie once about some thing we have to lie many more times to cover the first lie. Think is it the right way of raising children?

Jesus was born in summer months and not in cold winter. Why his birthday is celebrated on December 25. I hear when Saint Paul and his associates preached to pagans of Europe and said you will celebrate the birth day of Jesus in Summer. They said there is no way we can do that. This is the time of our harvest. We are extremely busy in fields. We will celebrate this holiday only in winters when we stay homes in cold drinking and chatting all day.. Then Priests agreed to change into Christmas holiday on 25th December. Priests were too zealous to convert them to Christianity. They also agreed to let them continue drinking alcohol and eating the pig meat even though it was prohibited in Bible. Usuray (charging interest) was prohibited in Bible but Church of England allowed to establish first Bank in England with permission to charge usary on loans. Today Pope and his associate invest Church money in interest bearing accounts in Banks and violate the Laws in Bible about Usary.

Could all these are the reasons majority of Christians do not belive and practice what Bible tells them to do and prohibits not to do? The Priests who themselves do not obey God's laws and even commit sins with children do not have effect in their preaching on the hearts of masses. Don't you see your preachers performing like actors on tv during their sermons on television. Their main purpose is to excite people to send checks of donations and these Preachers live very lavish life whereas millions of Christians live in poverty in south America. Though Jesus Christ, Mohammad,,Moses are Prophes of God were the poorest of all in their times.