Si Santa Claus ay nagsilbing simbolo ng pagbibigay at kagandahang loob sa panahon ng kapaskuhan. Si Santa Clas ay isang “legendary figure who is the traditional patron of Christmas in the United States and other countries, bringing gifts to children.”*
Ayon sa Encyclopædia Britannica,
The Dutch are credited with transporting the legend of Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) to New Amsterdam (now New York City), along with the custom of giving gifts and sweets to children on his feast day, December 6. The current depiction of Santa Claus is based on images drawn by cartoonist Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly beginning in 1863. Nast’s Santa owed much to the description given in the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (also known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”), first published in 1823. The image was further defined by the popular Santa Claus advertisements created for the Coca-Cola Company from 1931 by illustrator Haddon Sundblum. Sundblum’s Santa was a portly white-bearded gentleman dressed in a red suit with a black belt and white fur trim, black boots, and a soft red cap.†Santa is described to have Superman speed and flight, nakakalipad siya habang nakasakay sa isang ice sled na hinihila naman ng mga reindeers na pinangungunahan ni Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Santa Claus is said to live at the North Pole with his wife, where he spends the year making toys with the help of his elves. There he receives letters from children asking for Christmas gifts. On Christmas Eve he loads his sleigh with toys and flies around the world, drawn by eight reindeer, stopping at each child’s house; he slides down the chimney and leaves the gifts, refreshing himself with the milk and cookies left for him by the household’s children.‡Ang argument na tutugunan natin ngayon ay “Christians should not introduce to children the legendary figure Santa Claus because it is idolatry.”Ang outline ng ating pagsagot dito ay two-fold: 1) negatively, I would say that Santa can be a “Christmastime diversion”; and 2) positively, Santa Claus is a good take-off point to talk about the giving nature of God’s actions of love and I’ll explain here how to talk to children about them.
Christmastime Diversion
A diversion is “something intended to distract someone's attention from something more important.” So meron kang isang importanteng bagay, pero mayroon kang ibang sagabal na nagsisilibing diversion.
John Piper explains,
Jesus came at Christmas to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus came at Christmas to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Jesus came at Christmas to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Jesus came at Christmas not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matthew 9:13). Jesus came at Christmas to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Jesus came at Christmas that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death (Hebrews 2:14).
So the birth of the Son of God, the very God, very man, is simply stunning and glorious and infinitely serious — an overflow of the happy news. The angel called it “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10) — great joy, not small joy; not a little bit of joy, but great joy.§Kaya naman dagdag ni Pastor Piper,
How could we possibly even think of giving our children a bowl of bland, sugarless porridge when they are offered the greatest meal in the world? Why would we give them Santa Claus when they can have the incarnation of the Son of God? It is just mind boggling to me that any Christian would even contemplate such a trade — that we would divert attention away from the incarnation of the God of the universe into this world to save us and our children. I scarcely have words for it that people would contemplate this. Not only is Santa Claus not true and Jesus is very truth himself, but compared to Jesus, Santa is simply pitiful and our kids should be helped to see this. ║Santa As Take Off Point
But in all of these negative comments ni Pastor John, we have to understand na napunta tayo sa usapang ito dahil kay Santa Claus. My point is that Santa can be a good take off point towards deeper conversation about Christ. Sa book of Hebrews, bago pa man nakapag-conclude ang writer na “Since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” he listed a good number of people to prove his point. Sa discussion na ito we can also mention a great man of God -- St. Nicholas of Myra. It is a well-established fact that the “popular image [of Santa Claus] is based on traditions associated with Saint Nicholas, a 4th-century Christian saint.”¶
Nagtataka siguro kayo kung paanong naging Santa Claus ang name na St. Nicholas. Ang Dutch po kasi na tawag sa St. Nicholas ay Sinterklaas. The Dutch immigrants introduced Sinterklaas sa New Amsterdam, now New York.
Sinterklaas was adopted by the country’s English-speaking majority under the name Santa Claus, and his legend of a kindly old man was united with old Nordic folktales of a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good children with presents. The resulting image of Santa Claus in the United States crystallized in the 19th century, and he has ever since remained the patron of the gift-giving festival of Christmas.#St. Nicholas was twice imprisoned: first during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian, a Christian hating emperor; and then after he slapped Arius in the Council of Nicea. Opinion ko lang na baka ito kung bakit“[t]here is reason to doubt his presence at Nicaea, since his name is not mentioned in any of the old lists of bishops that attended this council.”** On both imprisonment “Nicholas’s reputation for generosity and kindness gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy.” In your conversations with your children, you tell them that St. Nicholas learned about giving from the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross to give the greatest gift for all of us and that is to be united to the Father in heaven. You can contrast that with the gifts that Santa gives -- material gifts that do not last, occasional on Christmas time only -- and the gift of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Pastor John Piper counsels parents,
[G]ive all your efforts to making your children as happy as they can possibly be with every kind of surprise that is rooted in the true meaning of Christmas. Let your decorations point to Jesus. Let your food point to Jesus. Let your games point to Jesus. Let your singing point to Jesus. Out-rejoice the world. Out-give the world. Out-decorate the world, and let it all point to Jesus. And if being Jesus-focused is a killjoy for your Christmas, you don’t know him well.††
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* Encyclopædia Britannica, sv “Santa Claus”
† Encyclopædia Britannica, sv “Santa Claus”
‡ Encyclopædia Britannica, sv “Santa Claus”
§ John Piper, "Santa Claus: Harmless Fun or Christmastime Diversion?" in Desiring God (website); accessed at https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/santa-claus-harmless-fun-or-christmastime-diversion
║John Piper, "Santa Claus: Harmless Fun or Christmastime Diversion?" in Desiring God (website); accessed at https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/santa-claus-harmless-fun-or-christmastime-diversion
¶ Encyclopædia Britannica, sv “Santa Claus”
# Encyclopædia Britannica, sv “St. Nicholas”
** Ott, M. (1911). "St. Nicholas of Myra." In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved December 8, 2017 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11063b.htm
†† John Piper, "Santa Claus: Harmless Fun or Christmastime Diversion?" in Desiring God (website); accessed at https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/santa-claus-harmless-fun-or-christmastime-diversion
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