From Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus to S-A-T-A-N!?!

On this third Sunday of Advent, I found in my Facebook feed a posting from a friend about the sermon he was listening to at his church.  The pastor had just made a reference to "Satan Claus," which my friend thought was funny (which in turn prompted his wife to roll her eyes, per his comments).  Now, I don't know what else the pastor in question said, or even what the sermon was about (I'll take a guess that secularization of the holiday may have been a theme), but it did get me thinking a bit about how some Christians have declared a war on Santa (and in the process forgotten about the man who inspired the myth, Saint Nicholas).

If you don't know anything about Saint Nicholas, you should.  Though there is some dispute about all the details of his life's work, he is widely acknowledged to have been the Bishop of Myra during the 300s.  He was known to give gifts (foreshadowing the eventual Santa Claus of course), but was perhaps known during his own time (and in perhaps the biggest gift to orthodox Christianity) for his staunch opposition to the Arian heresy (which cast doubt on the divinity of Jesus Christ) -- including slapping Arius himself in the face at the Council of Nicea!




For a fairly detailed account, read this or this.  For a more humorous take (though with some crude language, so be warned), read this.  But by all accounts, he was a no none sense defender of the faith, and very much worthy of being celebrated (and hardly surprising that his real exploits might take on the stuff of legends in their own rights).

So, how did Saint Nicholas become Santa Claus?  As those first two articles point out, one of the most popular saints in both the Eastern and Western churches got transformed by the Reformation.  Protestants, starting perhaps, with Martin Luther, who wanted to focus Christians away from venerating saints, cast aside St. Nicholas in favor of having Christian parents talk about the Christ Child.  The Christkindl of Protestant Germany found its way to the United States, where it became "translated" (we'll use that term loosely) as "Chris Kringle."  The next step to Santa then came with Episcopalian Clement Moore's "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (you can read more about him and the poem here) in 1822, followed by Thomas Nast (himself of German Protestant extraction) creating a visual image in 1863 that can now be found (and copied) virtually anywhere today.

Christians have enough to worry about in this day and age I think, than whether to welcome Santa down their chimney.  While I don't believe that Christianity in America is persecuted in the same way that say Christians in Syria are, nor that even this season's round of atheistic actions (see here for more on the "who needs Christ to celebrate Christmas" campaign -- which should prompt, I'd hope, at least some head scratching on the part of those who claim to be so well educated about how that realistically is supposed to work), harken the end of the faith in the United States, I really don't think Santa is to blame, or even a real worry.  If you don't want to talk about Santa, fine.  But you are going to be hard pressed to shield your eyes (or the eyes and imaginations of your children from it).  And no, even with secularization, Santa doesn't mean "S-A-T-A-N", no matter what the Church Lady might tell you!  By all means, focus on the Nativity, but maybe also talk a bit about the man who inspired the story to begin with.  It couldn't hurt and it is probably better for all of us than devoting more time to real danger to Christmas:  the Elf on a Shelf!