Why Do Christians Have Santa???

[givenright]

I was wondering why christians have Santa? Santa did not gives gifts to Jesus.. Santa is always a big deal at christmas time, Why can't people just say here are your gifts they are you because you are my child, friend ,husband wife, to honor the lord, there is no fat man in red giving them to you, they are given to you because you were made from the lord and given to the world. I do not do the fat man in the red coat, I ask my hildren what they would like to have to honor Jesus's birthday and to give them a gift because they were given to me. ooohhh, yes the lights, and the tree and all that sounds good not for me.


NO SANTA----MORE JESUS

JENNIFER
http://givenright.tripod.com

 

[BAChristian]

Personally, I feel the same way.

Unfortunately, the world likes to commercialize everything...

 

[TCapp]

The original Santa Claus, Nicholas, had a very Christian spirit when he gave some of his goodies to the poor folks of his town. Whether the story is merely a legend, or the truth, you can really appreciate the original Santa.

 

[lared]

Jehovah's Witnesses are Christian and they do not do Santa nor Christmas.

They follow the pattern of worship found in 1st century Christianity and neither Santa nor Christmas was practiced by these early Christians as recorded in the Bible.

 

[obediah001]

Theologically JW's contradict scripture; as for Santa & Christmas what does tha have to do with anything it is a cultural tradition, the later recognizing the birht of Christ the former a non religious purely fictional fun story.

 

[Blindfaith]

I'm a Christian along with the rest of my family and we do Santa but the primary focus is on Jesus. My children could probably recite the real reason of Christmas better than a majority but we still have a good time with gifts, pictures with Santa, etc...........

Is this going to mess them up for life? I doubt it. My teens don't seem to have a problem with the real reason for Christmas, and we've always included "Santa" in our holidays. My little ones go on and on about Jesus throughout the year - not Santa.

Santa for my children means "giving". We give more to others than we receive. Maybe it's not stricly societies viewpoint, but what each individual parent teaches their child ::shrug::

 

[givenright]

NO, I do not think it will mess up my children If we had a Santa, yet, I sat down with my children and my step son last night and I asked them what is christmas and they said gifts and santa, and christmas trees and parties, NO NO NO I said the real meaning of christmas and they said Jesus's birthdate, wrong again I said, but, your almost there. We are not sure what his birthdate is, yet, christmas is to honor his birth, and they said yes and people gave him gifts, and I said no not any people wise men. It is funny how you can go to church and make such a big deal out of something we should make the biggest deal out of, and all that is in planted in our childrens minds are gifts and santa.



Today and everyday I will start sitting down my children and pick out something like the santa subject and talk to them about it.

Jennifer
http://givenright.tripod.com
add your site to my site

 

[tcampen]

Christmas is really a Pagan celebration of the winter solstice - the recognition of the days finally getting longer and then nights shorter. Some also note that it could come from the birthday of Mithra, sun-god the predates Jesus, but shares many of the same qualities and mythological stories. This celebration was kept by the converted pagans to their new christian religion, and official sanctioned by Constantine. (No one really has the foggiest idea what day of the year Jesus was born, although there is plenty of speculation.)

So although it has become a very secular holiday in America in many ways today, this is really part of Christmas' continuing evolution. Everytime someone tries to tell me to "remember the reason for the season" I remind them that I'm not Pagan, and didn't realize they were either.

 

[whitestar]

Regarding pagan holidays being on the same days as Christian holidays, the chronology is off. Almost all of our sources of information about the pagan religions purported to have influenced early Christianity are dated too late. Scholars frequently find writers quoting from documents written 300 years later than Paul in efforts to produce ideas that allegedly influenced Paul. We must reject the assumption that just because a group had a certain belief or practice in the third or fourth century after Christ, it therefore had the same belief hundreds of years before.

Paul (the author of much of the New Testament) would not have consciously borrowed from the pagan religions. All of our information about him makes it highly unlikely that he was in any sense influenced by pagan sources. He placed great emphasis on his early training in a strict form of Judaism (Phil. 3:5). He warned the Colossians against the very sort of influence that advocates of Christian syncretism have attributed to him.

Early Christianity was an exclusivist faith. As J. Machen explains, the pagan cults were nonexclusive. "A man could become initiated into the mysteries of Isis or Mithras without at all giving up his former beliefs; but if he were to be received into the Church, according to the preaching of Paul, he must forsake all other Saviors for the Lord Jesus Christ....Amid the prevailing syncretism of the Greco-Roman world, the religion of Paul, with the religion of Israel, stands absolutely alone." Any hint of inclusiveism in the New Testament would have caused immediate controversy.

What few parallels may still remain may reflect a Christian influence on the pagan systems. As Bruce Metzger has argued, "It must not be uncritically assumed that the Mysteries always influenced Christianity, for it is not only possible but probable that in certain cases, the influence moved in the opposite direction." It should not be surprising that leaders of religions that were being successfully challenged by Christianity should do something to counter the challenge. What better way to do this than by offering a pagan substitute? Pagan attempts to counter the growing influence of Christianity by imitating it are clearly apparent in measures instituted by Julian the Apostate, who was the Roman emperor from A.D. 361 to 363.

If you'd like to read more about how Christianity is absolutely set apart from Pagan myth, I would reccommend:
http://www.probe.org/docs/e-paganmyths.html
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/a/unique.html
http://www.bible.ca/trinity/trinity-pagan-christianity.htm
http://www.stilez.freeserve.co.uk/apol/unique.html
http://www.reveration.org/devotions/paganism.htm
http://answering-islam.org/Pagan/

(information credit to Lindsay)

God bless
whitestar

 

[givenright]

Regarding pagan holidays being on the same days as Christian holidays
----------------------------------------------------
I think that all this stuff about the christmas tree and the santa claus and the rain deer and all that is pagan beliefs, to honor Jesus's birth is christian totally, I do not think we should send our life savings on trying to please the christmas santa belief, How can people buy a real nice gift such as a 1000 dollar stereo and say santa gave it to you, and then when they go to school they say santa got me this and santa got me that, well, what happends to the poor children when they think santa gave them little or nothing, shame on santa, let's get real santa might be good for some but, it is not related to Jesus and the real meaning of christmas.

Jennifer adoption search and reunion
http://givenright.tripod.com

 

[Blessed75]

hmmm, well we always did Santa at my house and I do it for my children (well my child, my second is due in Oct.) but anyway, I also bake a cake every Christmas to celebrate Jesus's birthday. I have a nail under my tree as well and have several manger sets. I was read the story of the birth of Jesus and my parents always reminded me what Christmas was all about. Not just at Christmas time but throughout the year, my parents made us donate to the homeless and people who did without. At Christmas, my mother bought toys for those less fortunate. I agree, the holidays are too commercialized but my parents found a way for us to have the best of both worlds and I'll carry on the tradition to my children.

 

[tcampen]

Whether the Christians borrowed from the pagans, or the pagans inserted some traditions into Christianity is kind of irrelevant to the point that the winter celebration is of pagan roots, and is also observed in cultures throughout the world that never, ever had any influence from Judiaism or Christianity.

The universal acknowledgment of the winter solstice being the beginning of new life as the days grow longer was observed before Christ throughout the world - even by the Romans. Hmmmmmmm.

Even so, most scholars recognize christmas as being borrowed from previously established pagan rituals.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761556859&pn=1&s=2#s2
http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm
http://www.circlesanctuary.org/pholidays/SolsticeArticle.html\
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/12/21/winter.solstice/

 

[Gentle Panther]

We are going to teach our little ones about St. Nicholas and the spirit of giving as well as the birth of Jesus.........but we are not going to tell our children that Santa is real. This has a lot do with the fact that I am skeptic and just don't believe in weaving a fantasy to my children.

I will also teach them not to spoil the fun of other children's beliefs by saying there is no Santa...unless they are asked point blank if they believe.

I don't do "tooth fairy" or "Easter bunny" either. These are just my own personal convictions. It's possible that my children might grow up wishing I had let them believe these things.

 

[Gentle Panther]

Not just at Christmas time but throughout the year, my parents made us donate to the homeless and people who did without. At Christmas, my mother bought toys for those less fortunate. I agree, the holidays are too commercialized but my parents found a way for us to have the best of both worlds and I'll carry on the tradition to my children.

That's wonderful!!!

 

[pudmuddle]

We never told our kids that Santa was real. Never made a big deal about it, just let them know he was just a fun made up character and Jesus is the real reason for Christmas.
I think there is a real danger here, as some people go overboard with it. I just can't see going in debt bigtime to give your kids tons of toys. That's just another way of giving them a warped veiw of Christmas.

 

[givenright]

The point of it is it is all made up, except for Jesus's birth, and do not get me started on the bunny with the eggs that turn rotten if you do not find them in your yard. Still people are missing the meaning the true meaning.I just think I will sing silent night instead off hoo hoo hoo, and santa is coming to town because he is not coming.........and if we are teaching our children not to lie then why are we saying see the red nose in the sky santa is coming when it is really a airplane with a red or white light on it, and no santa..

 

[12volt_man]

Santa did not give gifts to Jesus.

Why not? Was He naughty?

 

[CrownCaster]

Jehovah's Witnesses are Christian and they do not do Santa nor Christmas.

They follow the pattern of worship found in 1st century Christianity and neither Santa nor Christmas was practiced by these early Christians as recorded in the Bible.

jw's are not Christian. They are a cult who twists scripture to fit their beliefs and when they can't they re-write them. And the idea that they are like the NT Church is ludicrous.

BTW, I do not do satan clause. Christmas is about Jesus. I do want one of those outdoor nativities though that have santa on his face worshiping at the cradle of the Christ Child.

 

[CrownCaster]

NO, I do not think it will mess up my children If we had a Santa, yet, I sat down with my children and my step son last night and I asked them what is christmas and they said gifts and santa, and christmas trees and parties, NO NO NO I said the real meaning of christmas and they said Jesus's birthdate, wrong again I said, but, your almost there. We are not sure what his birthdate is, yet, christmas is to honor his birth, and they said yes and people gave him gifts, and I said no not any people wise men. It is funny how you can go to church and make such a big deal out of something we should make the biggest deal out of, and all that is in planted in our childrens minds are gifts and santa.



Today and everyday I will start sitting down my children and pick out something like the santa subject and talk to them about it.

Jennifer
http://givenright.tripod.com
add your site to my site

I have some wonderful traditions that I do with my child that continue throughout the Christmas season. If you would like me to let you know of them and maybe give you some ideas for your family, pm me and I will do so. God bless.

 

[Bails]

Santa has become a way to make sure that all the companies of America turn a profit at Christmas time. He takes away from the focus of the holiday, Jesus, and in my opinion is a horrible thing to let children into. Most kids simply focus on the fact that they are getting gifts from some fictitious fat man, rather than understanding that this is to celebrate the birth of our savior. For many children the Church on Christmas morning is simply a distraction from the gifts. Screw Santa Claus.