The "Claus" Clause [in honor of St. Nick's feast day]

Fighting Irish Thomas ^ | 12-5-06 | Tom O'Toole

[mlizzy]

One of my favorites! Happy feast day, St. Nick!

[MEGoody]

Most of you are at least vaguely familiar with the various Protestant Reformation (and later secular) traditions that transformed Saint Nicholas into Santa Claus

Really. . .so Catholic parents don't do the Santa Claus thing with their kids? Every single Catholic family I know does so.

[madamemayhem]

wait...what? santa is a myth? a lie? seriously? but... i’ve been really good this year and i was expecting something awesome. now you’ve gone and ruined christmas for me.:)

[pgyanke]

If you kept reading past that point, you would have found that the author admitted that many Catholics (with a secular perspective) have bought into this myth. That doesn’t change the origins of the tradition... which, by the way, aren’t really found in the Reformation. They are found in Germanic pagan traditions.

[mlizzy]

That’s what the article is about. Catholic parents who didn’t tell their son the truth about Santa Claus, and their son’s thoughts on the subject later on in life after he decided to tell his kids the truth from the get-go.

[mlizzy]

St. Nick (the real one) has always been very generous to us. So not to worry ...

[MEGoody]

That’s what the article is about.

I found it interesting that the author couldn't resist blaming the Protestants for it.

[NavyCanDo]

I was raised in a good Christian home, with 5 brothers and sisters and none of us were damaged because our parents let us watch Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - so many times we knew most of the words, and the hundreds of hours listening to Gene Autry’s Christmas album on my Dad’s hi-fi. Just good clean fun, and cherished memories. And we are all still strong Christians, with one of us ordained and working as a Police Chaplin. If you balance growing up with a strong Christian upbringing, you could not convince me there is a problem.

[fanfan]

Really. . .so Catholic parents don't do the Santa Claus thing with their kids? Every single Catholic family I know does so.

No. The point is that they shouldn't.

[MEGoody]

If you kept reading past that point, you would have found that the author admitted that many Catholics (with a secular perspective) have bought into this myth.

I just always find it interesting how some Catholics seem to have to find something to rag on the Protestants about. If the article was truly about the author deciding to do away with Santa Claus in his family, there was no need to bring up Protestants at all.

[Yaelle]

Not Germanic pagan — I lived in Germanic Europe for many years. There, the Christ child brings the presents, and there, on St. NiklausTag, the Skinny bishop in the red coat gives the tangerines, chocolates, and nuts from his bag.

[mlizzy]

Really. . .so Catholic parents don't do the Santa Claus thing with their kids? Every single Catholic family I know does so.

No. The point is that they shouldn't.

Exactly!

[mlizzy]

You say you watched the various movies, but did your parents tell you Santa Claus was, in fact, real? The big jolly bearded man that brings presents down a chimney and eats the cookies and milk left for him?

[NavyCanDo]

I can't remember what the parents said about Santa, but I know they didn't tell us he was not real when we were little. And yes all of us kids believed he was real until we were told by an older sibling in time. And again, I say what's the big deal? We turned out alright, and so have hundreds of millions of other kids, who grew up and sat next to you in church, served our country in uniform, served as missionaries in diverse areas of the World, or performed heart surgery, or gave CPR, saving people lives.

Not one iota of proof on your part that any of these good people's lives could have been more fulfilling if they did not believe in Santa when they were kids.

[sportutegrl]

This reminds me of Dana Carvey’s “The Church Lady” rearranging the letters in Santa to spell Satan.

[fanfan]

My parent's did it to me, and I was heart broken. Even so I did it to my own kids. I guess I forgot how much the ‘finding out I'd been lied to’ hurt.

One Christmas in the early ‘90s, when my daughter was 5 or 6, we were barely keeping the bills paid. She hadn't asked Santa for much, but he didn't/couldn't bring the one thing she really wanted, because I didn't have the money.

You see, she believed the whole story, and she just knew she had been good that year! It wasn't the present, it was the lack of reward for being a good girl. That may have been the year where she decided it didn't matter if she tried to be good.

Santa is a lie we tell children to make them behave.

The truth is a much better motivator.

[fanfan]

See my #16

[mlizzy]

The article doesn't state people whose parents have lied to them regarding Santa Claus, can't have normal type lives. That's not really the point of the post. The point is if parents want their kids to trust them (that they are telling the truth always), it helps if they tell the truth to begin with, especially on important matters (to a child) like Santa Claus. Also the story of the real St. Nick is just a much better one to tell all around, so why clutter it up with a fabrication?

[mlizzy]

Thanks a lot fanfan for your heartfelt commentary. (My husband, the author of this post, will appreciate your words, and understand. His parents truly were and still are darn-near saints, and he was crushed when he found out they had lied to him.)

Our kids, because of his experience, were told the truth regarding St. Nick, and they have never really doubted anything we say. They don't follow our advice, mind you, but they've never thought of us as handing them a line of bull.

[fanfan]

Exactly!

Good job!
:-)