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

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

[Salvation]

The Real St. Nicholas – How Did a Cantankerous but Holy Bishop Become Jolly Ole St. Nick?
The "Claus" Clause [in honor of St. Nick's feast day]
The Santa Question
The "Claus" Clause
Celebrating Nikolaus in Germany
Church celebrates feast of St. Nicholas, the 'original' Santa Claus
Who is St. Nicholas?
Finally a mass in the church of Saint Nicholas in Myra (+ life of St. Nicholas)
An "Anglican World" Christmas Special: St. Nicholas, a Saint For Today

Saint Nicholas of Myra, By Ilya Repin
How St. Nicholas Became Santa Claus: One Theory
An Orthodox priest at Bari; the story of St. Nicholas' bones
Turkish Town Exchanges St. Nick for Santa (Former Myra, hometown of St. Nicholas)
The Real St. Nicholas
St. Nicholas belongs in any reclamation of Christmas
Don't forget: St. Nicholas' Day is tomorrow [today] (get your shoes out!)
The Russian legend of St. Nicolas and St. Cassian(Soloviev's Application)
Life of Saint Nicholas the Bishop, from The Golden Legend compiled by Jacobus de Voragine
Yes, There Really is a St. Nicholas !

[mlizzy]

Thanks Salvation. Here's another for your list:

Saint Nicholas, by Father Mark Kirby

[fightingirishthomas]

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.

I'm so glad to read your comment; you realize the true meaning of Christmas is "Truth" Himself. Don't beat yourself up about coming late to the faith, the important thing is you are breaking the Santa chain, and opting instead for the story of St. Nick ... and Jesus Christ.