Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas??

[aurelia]

Our approach has always been (even before the conversion) that Santa exists as long as you believe in him, that he is part of the spirit of christmas.  Nowadays, my 10 year od stopped bvelieving in the big guy who brings presents, but she keeps it to herself for the benefit of her siblings.  BUT we can talk about St Nicholas who was a real person.  It ay sound confusing, but it works.

[Augustine]

I'm married with no children, so this is my "unqualified" opinion...

I have no intention of teaching any of my future children about "Santa Claus" - I think the actual holy days and personalities are interesting enough themselves to not need embelishment.  Maybe I'm just a humourless grinch (actually, I know I'm not...but everyone is welcome to their opinion), but I just see no point in deceiving children because it is "cute" to see them fuss about a semi-omniscient being who does not in fact exist.  This is beside the fact that I find the "holiday season" (as opposed to their religious aspect) to be repellent and in fact opposed to the celebration of the Holy Nativity.  The way I see it, religious Jews and Muslims seem to get by well enough telling their children "we don't celebrate Christmas" - I don't see how it'll be much harder for me and my wife to simply say to the kids (when they ask) that we don't celebrate the way our non-Orthodox neighbours do, or believe as they do.

I dunno...I'd like my kids to be able to say I never lied to them.  Perhaps I didn't tell them everything (since that can be a sin too), but I didn't deceive them either.  A scruple of mine?  Perhaps, but I think it's as good of a scruple as you'll ever find.  I just don't want them even subconciously suspecting that the "Jesus stuff" somehow fits into the same category as "Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny".

[AncientFaith]

I'm still Anglican, so I probably should keep quiet, but then that would run counter to my personality.

At any rate, we have 4 children ranging in ages from just under 2 to 11, and we've never done the Santa Claus thing.  They know of the myth and what its about, but we had two issues with it.  The first is maybe reflecting our protestant backgrounds a bit, but it seems to me that Christmas is about grace, and the coal in the stocking vs. gifts seems to obscure that message a bit.  The bigger issue is the "lying" to your kids thing.  Its one thing to pretend a bit and relate fairy tales and things of that nature, or to use animals and objects as symbols of other things.  However, Santa Claus is frankly taken way beyond that.  Parents go to great pains to make it appear as if he is real, and woe to the child who lets a younger one know that Santa isn't real.  I remember one Easter when our rector stated from the pulpit that the Easter Bunny wasn't real with a bunch of kids in the congregation.  I thought a couple of parents were going to kill him on the spot.  Then, some day, the child will realize that his parents were making it up.  Honestly, what is the reaction when you try to convince him that the resurrection is real, that God is real?  I'm generally in a minority on this view, but its mine and I'm fond of it.

We, instead, do St. Nicholas day on December 6.

[Ebor]

I'm still Anglican, so I probably should keep quiet,

Well, it hasn't stopped me, so Go For it!  

 

Ebor

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