Looking at a selection of conservative political cartoons, I saw one published on Christmas day showing Santa Claus poking his head through a poster saying “Happy Holidays” and apparently shouting “Merry Christmas.” At first glance, it seems like a simple way of pushing back against the public retreat from the religious particularity of the holiday we are in fact celebrating.
But then I thought: Wait, why is Santa Claus the symbol of Christmas? Even if the use of “happy holidays” is a retreat, having a Santa Claus say “Merry Christmas” in response seems a corruption. There’s something wrong with this.
He’s at best a derivative figure, and is in fact really more a commercialized image more closely related to secular American culture than to anything significantly Christian — to anything, that is, that signifies Christ. At this point, he’s only derived from the Christian feast day as some over-sweetened kid’s artificially-flavored grape drink can be said to be derived from good red wine. When he says “Merry Christmas,” he’s not really saying what the Christian means by it.
I can’t quite figure out why this bothers me, but it has something to do with the use of a secular symbol in defense of Christianity as if it were a Christian symbol. The cartoonist has confused two things that ought never to be confused or blended.
December 28th, 2010 | 1:50 pm
Whenever someone tells me, “Happy holidays,” I say, “Happy birthday to our Lord and Savior.”
Okay, I don’t, but I want to.
December 28th, 2010 | 3:02 pm
I work at a state psychiatric hospital. It is never staff that wishes me Merry Christmas, but patients, and most often those who have been in the system longest, somewhat unaware of social trends over the decades.
There are more than the two Christmases we often talk about in opposition (the religious celebration and the merchandised winter celebration). There is at least a third one, a family-and-traditional-culture Christmas, in which religious celebration has an honored place but is not the center. Jesus is the center of the first one, Frosty of the second, and Santa of the third. Santa is expansive, willing to include both Jesus and Frosty, and so Christians have made a sometimes grudging accommodation with him. But Frosty seems to be a jealous god, allowing no others.
December 28th, 2010 | 4:50 pm
The mythical figure who is Santa Claus is a corruption of the historical figure who is Saint Nicholas of Smyrna. The Christian response to Santa Claus should be to rehabilitate him, to restore the popular understanding of him as Saint Nicholas.
How Saint Nicholas got associated with Christmas is anyone’s guess. It may be related to his feast day, December 6, falling within Advent and so being associated with the run-up to Christmas.
For those who are concerned that Santa Claus only reinforces the secularization of Christmas, remember this: Saint Nicholas attended the First Council of Nicaea and is often associated with it. There Arianism was officially repudiated and, by implication, Jesus’ divinity, which is at the heart of the reason for the season, as Christians see it, was most powerfully affirmed.
Then there is the popular tradition of Saint Nicholas as patron of children. The legend of his coming to the rescue of children whose lives were endangered recalls that part of the Nativity story that involves the flight into Egypt.
December 28th, 2010 | 5:58 pm
AVI:: Your addition of the third Christmas is very helpful. It seems to me, to build on that insight, that the Santa Claus who is the god of the family-and-traditional-culture Christmas is just as dangerous as Frosty — and indeed shares the duties of god of the commercialized Christmas with Frosty. He may be more dangerous because his Christmas looks much more like the real Christmas.
Nicholas Frankovich: I’m not sure we can rehabilitate a cultural symbol like Santa Claus. It means too much already and the meanings are constantly being reinforced. I’m not even sure I’d make a special effort to teach children about St. Nicholas, bec. that means we highlight the saints the culture has appropriated and corrupted, which puts the culture in control.
It would be better just to teach the story of St. Nicholas as it arises in the Church year, and indeed to raise children who know the stories of the saints and know them as friends as their feast days come throughout the year.
December 28th, 2010 | 8:28 pm
David – We did not teach the Santa myth to our children. In addition to the difficulty you mention, of a lesser god assuming the place of the one true God, I have read too many atheists over the years write disdainfully of giving up the idea of believing in God shortly after they disbelieved in Santa. They doubtless have their childhood memories compressed and are inaccurate in this. Still, that they make the association as adults tells me that something is up: something has gone wrong with the easy coexistence of the first and third Christmases noted above. That many people are not harmed is not enough.
December 29th, 2010 | 9:41 am
[...] Mills sees in Santa Claus a confusion of two things “that ought never to be confused or blended,” Christmas as a secular holiday and Christmas as a Christian holy day. To honor that [...]
December 29th, 2010 | 1:34 pm
“The mythical figure who is Santa Claus is a corruption of the historical figure who is Saint Nicholas of Smyrna. ”
Nicholas of Myra. Smyrna is somewhere else entirely.
January 2nd, 2011 | 10:38 am
There are some great resources on this subject. Tony Woodlief’s delightful article, Bill Bennett’s phenomenal book (a summary of which can be found here), and the extensive content of the St. Nicholas Center website (with lots of suggested activities for children). All three point to a growing consensus that Santa Claus is recoverable, but only with the help of St. Nick.
January 2nd, 2011 | 2:45 pm
Note to readers: You’ll want to arrow over the text in Matthew Milliner’s comment to find the links, because they don’t look like links at all (at least in my browser).
Note to Matt: A few comments doesn’t suggest a growing consensus. One wants to know a consensus of exactly which people? Anyway, I don’t think the recovery of St. Nicholas likely or even possible, and I’m not sure why one would want to try.
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