Tulsa OK.

This question comes to us from Amanda B. in Tulsa OK.
(name changed to protect ... who am I kidding ... )

Fox,
My sister-in-law (I'll call her Marge.) insists every Christmas that my husband, four children and I should not celebrate with Santa and the usual festivities that put the spotlight on Kris Kringle. (Shes a big bible thumper.) And she really belly-aches about how much we spend on our children each year. (I think she is just jealous!) I have not told her off for the sake of saving face. What should I do?



Well Amanda I don't really care what you call your sis-in-law, but let me break a few things down. I don't really care for the commercialized parade of festive garbage that America calls Christmas...

First, the word Christmas itself is composed of two ENGLISH words CHRIST and MASS. (The last [s] dropped for easy printing of do good, feel good, nothing to do with the anything but marketing crap I'm sure.)

Next lets tackle the Fat Old Elf, Kris Kringle or St. Nick or Santa Clause what ever....
He is made up... maybe one time there was this old dude who had a heart and GAVE away the toys he made to the less fortunate, but he is long dead and so went his love of giving.

The major giving I see at Christmas is self indulgent, undisciplined parents, grandparents, adult children (ad nauseam), giving their hard earned cash to buy foreign made junk from Wal Mart, Kmart, Target, etc., all the while hoping it will fill the empty void in them or who ever they buy this crap for.... We love more crap. (don't believe me? How many people do you know have a garage or basement, or even better, had to rent a storage shed to put all of their rubbish in? ) And if they aren't spending cash they are racking up the credit cards, they will pay on all year or longer, all for the 45 min. of present opening time.

I just don't see good old K. Kringle seeing this as a good thing. I am sure Kris K. put in many hours of love and hard work into each item he made. (they did not have Wal- mart back then) And I am sure that he only gave one item to each child he made for. And I am also sure that each child that received, cherished the item for more than 3 weeks.

How can we as True Blue Americans give our family a stock pile of foreign made useless junk and have the audacity to blame it an Santa. I can see St. Nick rolling in his grave on The Great Morning... "Hey Susy look what Santa brought you. A new Barbie doll made in (insert foreign country here) under harsh labor conditions and chock full of lead based paint." Grand just friggin grand.

Now I am not against buying things for others, but for God sake stop blaming it on Santa, and maybe if you would do it more evenly through out the year and make some what of a big deal out of buying the simple things, and giving them as gifts your kids might begin to appreciate what you do for them, and they might not actually expect the uber X-mas morning from hell, thus easing your pocket book to do things like ... send them to college or take a vacation.

A little Fat Guy In the Red Suit History

Modern ideas of Santa Claus seemingly became canon after the publication of the poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (better known today as "The Night Before Christmas") in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on December 23, 1823. In this poem Santa is established as a heavyset individual with eight reindeer (who are named for the first time). Santa Claus later appeared in various colored costumes as he gradually became amalgamated with the figure of Father Christmas, but red soon became popular after he appeared wearing such on an 1885 Christmas card. Still, one of the first artists to capture Santa Claus' image as we know him today was Thomas Nast, an American cartoonist of the 19th century. In 1863, a picture of Santa illustrated by Nast appeared in Harper's Weekly.
Another popularization was L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, a 1902 children's book. Much of Santa Claus's mythos was not set in stone at the time, leaving Baum to give his "Neclaus" (Necile's Little One) a wide variety of immortal support, a home in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho, and ten reindeer which could not fly, but leapt in enormous, flight-like bounds. Claus's immortality was earned, much like his title ("Santa"), decided by a vote of those naturally immortal. Also established Claus's motives: a happy childhood among immortals. When Ak, Master Woodsman of the World, exposes him to the misery and poverty of children in the outside world, he strives to find a way to bring joy into the lives of all children, and eventually invents toys as a principal means.
Images of Santa Claus were further cemented through Haddon Sundblom's depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company's Christmas advertising. The popularity of the image spawned urban legends that Santa Claus was in fact invented by Coca-Cola or that Santa wears red and white because those are the Coca-Cola colors. In fact, Coca-Cola was not even the first soft drink company to utilize the modern image Santa Claus in its advertising – White Rock Beverages used Santa in advertisements for its ginger ale in 1923 after first using him to sell mineral water in 1915.
The image of Santa Claus as a benevolent character became reinforced with its association with charity and philanthropy, particularly organizations such as the Salvation Army. Volunteers dressed as Santa Claus typically became part of fundraising drives to aid needy families at Christmas time.
Text from Wikipedia.com

Ok now the Bible thumper comment.
My condolences if your sister-in-law is really a Bible thumper.(no better way to show Christs love that to beat em with the Bible) I don't know her, so for arguments sake I am going to take the stand as a non threatening, non Bible thumping Christian... at least for now.

A little X-mas History:

In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.

In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January, they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.

In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The pagans of northern Europe celebrated the their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.
Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means “wheel,” the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Holly berries were thought to be a food of the gods.

The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were sometimes carried as totems of good luck and were often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees.

In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.
Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church celebrated it first. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany. A prominent Lutheran minister of the day cried blasphemy: “Better that they should look to the true tree of life, Christ.”

text from http://de.essortment.com/christmaspagan_rece.htm

Search the words Christmas Origins in you browser and have fun.

So from a historical stand point Christs birth has little to do with the "date" on which we celebrate, but the day is called Christmas non-the-less. So I feel some homage should be in order for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who died so that we can live eternally in Heaven at no cost to us... only that we believe He is who He says He is.

Maybe the day that is called Christmas should be set aside for Him ... to celebrate His birth ... to celebrate giving .... to celebrate family ... to celebrate winter ... to celebrate the north pole? ... to celebrate Santa?... Notice how close that word is to Satan?...

Instead of Santa Clause how bout Satan's Clause... Satan the self appointed deity who was thrown from heaven due to vanity. If Satan has a clause it would be, "Me! Its all about me!" or "I'm gonna do it my way no matter what the cost... no matter who I hurt."


Before you all post telling me how much you and yours are not "all about me" at Christmas.... think about Christmas Shopping... fighting over parking stalls... running down children to get the last wonder widget.... blah blah blah ad nauseam get it? good!

I hope this answer is as painful for you as it was for me.

Oh P.S. feel free to tell your in law that Dec. 25 is not the day Christ was born on and if you want to celebrate this pagan holiday by God your going to do it with gusto.

P.S.S. I do hope you will find time during the year to honor your Lord and Savior in an appropriate way. Need help?.. ask a neighbor who goes to church... better yet ask God to help you find a way that is pleasing to Him.

P.S.S.S. Don't think He's your Lord and Savior? Then Who Is?..... Santa?