"He was known for his generosity and his goodwill because he was very rich," Rosenthal said. "He literally, by the end of his life, gave away all of his fortune. Many stories talk about the fact that he was so generous that he became known as the 'Gift Giver."'
Church leaders emphasize that Nicholas' generosity was motivated by his Christian faith, that he was following Jesus' command to love others, to help those who are suffering and to do one's good deeds in secret.
I don't have kids yet, but how to talk about Santa Claus to our children, should we be so blessed at some point, is a topic my wife and I have visited on several occasions. She doesn't see any harm in re-creating the magic of Santa Claus, and for the most part I agree. I don't mind the fantasy and fun stories of Santa and his reindeer, but I do want it to be presented with a wink and a smile, not as matter of fact. I want to share and focus more on the story of the real Saint Nick, which brings much more power to the spirit of Christmas, and the reasons each of us should do good for others. I don't see the long term upside of convincing children of a magical denizen of the North Pole that caters to their wants and desires. And of course there is the eventual cold slap of reality when the child finds out (usually not by the parents) that the red-robed one does not exist.
"The problem with Santa Claus as it stands now is that it's a substitute for Christmas — Santa Claus instead of the crèche, instead of the manger, instead of the nativity scene," said Rosenthal. "This man we would find kneeling at the nativity scene saying, 'This is what I'm here to celebrate as well."
Hopefully by slowly transitioning from the fantasy of Santa Claus to the history and inspiration of Saint Nick, children can be allowed to imagine and dream, but also learn how gift-giving is part of keeping the Christ in Christmas.
4 comments:
I couldn't agree more Justus;) Too much emphasis on the wrong person in my view. I think it is important to have some mystery but around 6 or 7 it is time to start telling kidos about the truth of the myth and then shift the whole focus to the little baby vs the big jolly guy! On a different note we went running today as well at noon and it was only 15. I wore a huge and cumbersome ski mask. I thought about robbing a quicky mart while I had it on but at least I was warmer than I might have been. Merry Christmas!
So, I bet you didn't think that you'd get any more responses on this post.
This is a conversation that Mrs. Anon and I have as well. Although it wasn't an issue at the time of this post, we have now celebrated our first Christmas as parents. Santa Claus was a huge part of my wife's upbrining, and neither she nor any of her siblings ever doubted the true meaning of Christmas, while in my family, my dad is so anti-claus that my siblings and I call our "secret santa" gift giving "mystery magi". This is both to avoid the santa issue and to poke a little fun at the same time.
Anyway, I have never intended to take as hard a stance as my family, but also have concerns about how to balance the two without confusing them. Mrs. Anon can probably explain much better than me, but one thing I did when we were first married was talk to her dad about it as well as some other friends that are very spritually grounded but celebrated Santa Claus.
The first thing I learned was fairly obvious. Santa only shows up once a year, but Jesus abides all year long. If parents provide a continual example of Christ, the chance for confusion is pretty small.
A couple other things that made some good sense to me were that not all gifts come from Santa. Parents, family, and friends all have gifts under the tree before the ones arrive from Santa.
Also, Santa's gifts don't stop once the "secret" is known. My wife still gets gifts from Santa every year. In reality, Santa does exist - He's just your parents. That to me helps alleviate possible feelings of betrayal and disappointment.
All that said, I still have some questions, and don't know exactly how we'll do it, and of course right now, my daughter couldn't care less. She's still much more interested in the box instead of the gift that's in it.
Oh, and Barlow, if you are still reading this post, good call on avoiding the Christmas robbery last year.
And to both of you, my brother-in-law is really pushing me to do a sprint triathalon later this year. Would you guys be interested? Please say yes.
I make no promises on the sprint triathlon, but we'll see.
Nice comments on Santa Claus. I hope you don't mind that Mrs. Hommes and I had a good laugh about "mystery magi."
Mrs. Hommes's family did the same thing as your wife, with family gifts going under the tree throughout the season, and only adding Santa's gifts on Christmas day. They also left Santa's gifts unwrapped, which I think is pretty cool.
You raised good points, thanks for revisiting this post.
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