This is going to be a rare post in which I’m not sure where I’m going to end up by the end. But this post is going to focus on Santa. It’s about that time where various Christians will start posting stuff on why Jesus is superior to Santa. My friend told me he got a gift a few Christmas’s back which was an ornament in which Santa is portrayed as bowing to a baby Jesus in a manger. That’s hysterical to me.As an aside a co-worker of mine once joked that he could make a living playing off of this kind of religious reactivity – you know like build a company that does stuff like the Christian fish on the cars. He said he could think of a dozens of things like the fish on the car which is countered by the Darwin fish with feet which is countered by a bigger Christian fish eating the Darwin fish. He suggested that you could do Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes peeing on either fish or a host of other decals that try to stick it to the other. From a marketing standpoint it’s shrewd because you can make a bunch of money just by generating reactivity and then marketing to it. The Santa vs. Jesus arena has potential there as well.
Anyway, I like Santa. I like Christmas. I like the spiritual side of it. I confess I even like some of the materialistic side of it from black friday to day after Christmas sales even though I rarely buy anything extra. I like the Santa Claus mythology and all the cartoon shows.While some may go to great lengths to do their own version of peeing on Santa in various ways to prove the superiority of Christianity or the superiority of Jesus, I think Santa opens up a door to an aspect of Jesus that sometimes gets overshadowed in the Scriptures – how counter cultural Jesus was in relating to children in his day. Children were at the low end of the totem pole in terms of status in the ancient world, a far cry from our children focused society in the western world today. Those episodes of the disciples keeping children away from Jesus and Jesus counter culturally giving children incredible access and dignity. You’ll no doubt hear a sermon this month that focuses on how we should have childlike faith with an emphasis on innocence and purity of heart. However, I find the real amazing thing about Jesus is that children have access because Jesus sees them as important to his plan too.It was radical and I see in Santa a tribute of sorts to that aspect of Jesus. Santa is a symbol of approachability and someone who is a hero and in some ways an advocate for children. That’s the lore behind St. Nicholas as well. Of course today the mythology has taken on some of the image of the current culture, but there are aspects of St. Nick that remain and now having kids of my own I see the awe and naive enthusiasm that they have for figures that are larger than life and that show them significant value and dignity.So I will not be slamming Santa anytime soon nor will I be allowing Christian fish decals swallow him whole nor will I be having Calvin urinate on him on my back window. While I do believe Jesus is superior and it’s a no contest situation between Jesus and Santa, there are great things about the Santa tradition that I fully support even if I do happen to have my own reasons for them. I don’t expect people to share my own perspectives on this. People have some good reasons for taking various stands. To some Santa is a complete embodiment of all things materialism. I can see some of that. But there’s some things in the mythology that obviously connect to the human heart because the Santa Claus movement has grown over time to cover some serious ground and influence most of the world in various forms. So I can get with and celebrate Santa (in moderation) though I do find it incomparable with the experience of celebrating the incarnation.So I’ve reached the end. If that ended up halfway coherent I’ll be pleased, but those are some of the Santa – Jesus thoughts I’ve had this Christmas season thus far.Have you had any?
