The Burr in the Burgh

Do you believe in Santa Claus? I don't and as far as I can recall, I never have. Now the troubling thing is that some of you will think I had a deprived childhood for not experiencing the "magic" of Santa. Well, it gets even worse. We never taught our son anything about Santa Claus, other than that he is make-believe (gasp!). But don't worry, I won't spoil it by wearing my "Santa is Dead" t-shirt to church on Christmas Eve.

I never used to have a problem with Santa. I always thought of him as a fun and harmless goofy thing to do at Christmastime with the kids. But more and more these days I am beginning to really hate the big guy in the red suit. Now I hesitate to say anything because I know that I will offend some very pious and excellent Christian parents who do enjoy the whole Santa thing. I'm not throwing stones at you or saying you're a bad parent or anything like that. But I am suggesting you reconsider the whole Santa business.

You see, I think that 50 years ago - or even 20 years ago - Santa Claus was indeed fun and harmless. But today, I'm not so sure. Fun, yes. But harmless?

Well, let's put it to a test. Go grab ten random 5-year-olds and ask them if they know who this man is. Ask them to tell you who he is AND why he comes. Write down their answers.













Next, have the same ten random 5-year-olds tell you who this is. Who is the person in the center of this picture? Ask them that AND ask them why he came. I am convinced that unless you grabbed all ten of these kids straight out of a truly superlative Sunday school program (such as ours), fewer than half would be able to answer the first question correctly and not one will be able to answer the second question. Oh, if you repeated this test a dozen times, you might find a nano-percentage of children who actually know what you're talking about, but most simply will not.

Then again, maybe you'll prove me wrong. I could be full of beans. But I suspect that today's children know a whole lot more about Santa Claus than they do about Jesus Christ.

And if I'm right, then Santa Claus is not harmless fun. He has supplanted Jesus as the reason for the Christmas celebration in the minds of most children, even Christian children. And if that is the case, then Santa Claus is a false god, an idol, the anti-christ, and anything but harmless.

Last night, I was in a video store looking for something to pass the evening and the store was playing the recent film Polar Express. Admittedly, I only saw/heard about 20 minutes of it, but what I witnessed disturbed me. And I mean "disturbed" in the sense of watching baby harp seals being clubbed to death. All this stuff about Christmas is about believing - believing in what? Santa. Santa this. Santa that. And at the end, the movie makes him into a Titan demi-god who grants wishes and makes children's dreams come true. Some folks have a word for that. It's called a religion. And this business that Christmas is about nostalgia, friendship, being nice - that's a false American 20th century religion invented by Macy's, Coca-Cola and Frank Capra.

Do yourselves a favor and commemorate the birth of Christ and that alone this Christmas.