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By Michelle Watt

A (very) Brief History of the Man in the Red Suit

Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas. His names and guises are many and varied. The tales that surround the origins of Santa Claus are actually pretty fascinating. Germanic, Dutch and Nordic traditions each have there own version of a Yule-time gift-giver, and these traditions have melded with the figure of Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (modern day Turkey), along with the British character of Father Christmas, to give us the jolly man in red and white and his eight or nine reindeer. There is no truth to the rumour that Coca-Cola invented Santa Claus, though they are mainly responsible for his red and white garb: he used to wear green, grey, and various other colours until particularly successful advertising campaigns in the 1930s.

Santa is a Jolly Big Jerk: The Subversion of the Saint

According the ‘Christian’ tradition, Santa Claus can be traced back to the fourth century, to the Bishop of Myra in Lycia, a province of Byzantine Anatolia, which is modern day Turkey. This bishop, Saint Nicholas, was apparently famed for his generosity, most exemplified in his providing dowries for three young women to prevent them from having to resort to prostitution.

That sounds about right doesn’t it? Kindly old guy gives gifts to the unfortunate. That’s pretty similar to our modern Santa Claus, isn’t it? Perhaps not.

a. Santa perpetuates the oppression of the poor

Santa might once have been generous, seeking to give to the poor and alleviate the suffering of the needy, but I tell you, he’s changed. Santa is no longer generous; he no longer seeks to bring cheer to the poor at Christmas time. No, Santa has a new master, the almighty dollar.

Ever noticed Santa just doesn’t seem to make it to the developing countries (unless of course, there happens to be a television crew around)? Where are the extravagant gifts for poor children in Africa? Why doesn’t Santa give generously to the people who need it the most? If he was really such a good guy, surely he’d realise that many of us in the developed world can afford to buy our own presents, and so he’d use his miraculous and unlimited resources to spread a little Christmas cheer to kids who struggle to find enough food to last them the day.

No instead, Santa’s out there making the rich richer. He gives much to those who already have much, yet gives nothing to those who have nothing. Not such a nice guy after all.

It gets worse.

b. Santa seeks to usurp the throne of God

There are three main ways that Santa seeks to throw the Lord God off his throne.

1. Misplaced gratitude:

God is the giver of every good gift (James 1:17). In His sovereignty, He provides us with work and an income, which we use to buy food, clothes, housing and Christmas presents. Everything we have, we have only because God in His kindness has given it to us. Indeed, the whole point of gift-giving at Christmas time is to remind each other of God’s greatest gift to us: His own Son, Jesus. Immanuel: God with us. When we give and receive gifts at Christmas time, then, we ought to be thankful to the Lord God for His gracious provision to us. Instead, along comes Santa Claus, stealing the limelight, taking credit for fabulous presents, and seeking to distract us from being thankful to God.

2. Attributed with characteristics that belong to God:

Around Christmas I get very tired of people telling my two year old daughter “You’d better be good, Santa’s watching” or “Santa will know if you’ve been a good girl”. Apparently these days Santa is omniscient, that is, he knows all and sees everything. According to popular culture, Santa watches the behaviour of children, and rewards “good” kids with extravagant gifts. He used to give lumps of coal to naughty kids, but as far as I can tell, all kids must be pretty good; I don’t recall too many children receiving coal lately (either that or Santa’s gone carbon-neutral and is using less fossil fuels).

Santa is not God. He is not the one to whom we will have to give account for our actions. No, we will have to give account to the Lord of the Universe, Creator of Heaven and Earth! A lump of coal is nothing, nothing, in comparison to the wrath of God revealed against the unrighteousness of man. Praise God for the Lord Jesus, for who could stand before Him, but by the blood of the Son! Therein lies the joy and hope we celebrate at Christmas: no gift of Santa’s could possibly be as great and glorious as God’s gift of His Son! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, ESV).

3. Suppression of the truth:

The place of religion (and Christianity in particular) in the public sphere has come in for much debate in recent times. Many shopping centres will no longer allow nativity scenes, and have weeded out the ‘religious’ Christ-themed carols they play from October onwards. Christmas has become XMAS, as secular society seeks to rub out any reminder of Christ from the holiday season. This isn’t actually that surprising; mankind has been doing this for ages.

Romans 1:18-23 tells us “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (ESV).

Humans have this nasty habit of always trying to take God out of the equation, so the gradual and sneaky usurping of Christmas ought not to surprise us. Santa’s hold on Christmas is just one of the ways we’ve tried to shove God off His throne, and stash him away, justifying it, because after all, in a civilised society, religion is a private thing, and if we celebrate Christ’s birth at Christmas time, we might offend people.

Reclaiming CHRISTmas

I heard a story recently about a shopping centre in Beijing that decided to put up some Christmas decorations (the Chinese don’t traditionally celebrate Christmas, but no doubt, this shopping complex figured it might be an advantageous marketing ploy). You can imagine the shock of Western tourists when they wandered through the doors one morning in December to see an enormous cross, with Santa Claus crucified upon it. This made me laugh at first, but I was sobered to realise that it’s really not that amusing. The meaning of Christmas has been obscured by the rampant commercialisation and materialism that has gripped Western society.

In my anti-Santa, anti-materialism campaign this Christmas, I’ve actually had to remind myself of how fantastic Christmas is. I had to remind myself that although Christmas has been stolen, ransacked, abused, misrepresented and completely sold-out, it really is a day we ought to cherish with great joy.

The world needs to know about Christmas, it needs to understand what it actually means to proclaim “Peace on Earth” and “Goodwill to all men”. These aren’t token phrases used to convey a mild sense of nice-ness, and warm fuzzy friendliness to each other. These are great truths to be cherished. That God, Creator and Judge, should send His own Son, born as a man at Christmas time, to die for men at Easter time, is a profound and awesome truth.

This Christmas, remember what you’re celebrating. God’s greatest gift to us:

Immanuel “God with us”.

Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.