Santa and Jesus

We all know the Christmas song 'Santa Claus is coming to town', in it it talks about a widely held belief that Santa Claus watches all the children around the world all the year and only brings presents to those who are well behaved. Those who are naughty instead of nice, in Christmas  tradition, would receive a piece of coal in their stocking. Parents in most parts of the world where Christmas is widely celebrated use this belief to their advantage from around November each year, I include myself among them. When my son was young I would begin in around November reminding him that Father Christmas was watching and as the big day came nearer and nearer, each time he would play up or do something naughty I would remind him of the presents he was risking and he would normally stop immediately what he was doing. Off course, the threat was never followed through with and on Christmas day he would come downstairs to a number of gifts under the tree no matter his behaviour coming up to Christmas morning.

This blog post is named Santa AND Jesus for two reasons. The first reason being this, there are many Christian parents who feel that they are unable to share the Father Christmas tradition with their children, that in doing so they somehow take away from the Jesus story. Is there room at Christmas for both Father Christmas and for Jesus? For me the answer is "Yes". St Nicholas was around in the 4th Century, he is known for giving gifts to people in secret, especially for slipping a coin into people's shoes. It is this man that gives us the basis for our modern day Father Christmas and to me teaches an important lesson in giving to others with no thought of what you will get in return. Jesus, for the Christian tradition, is the main focus of the Christmas story. God reaching out in a unique way to touch the world in physical form. A helpless baby with an amazing message and some wonderful lessons to learn.

And so to the second reason and the main focus of this particular blog. It was the first Sunday in Advent and once again I was in a Church service listening to someone preach on the subject. The preacher reminded us that Advent now is no longer about waiting for the Christ child to be born, but paradoxically is instead about us looking to the second coming. The day when Christ will come again and divide the nations, the sheep from the goats, to end the world and to take to Heaven those who believe and profess his name. It would take a whole lot of blog posts to explain why I don't believe this to be true and that may be written another day. However, for today;s purposes I want to look at how both Santa and Jesus have gone from being inspirational images of hope and love and giving and have instead become figures who command belief and obedience through fear and threats.

The baby in a manger has been almost overlooked, the message of the angels of good news to all the nations has become about a possible future event where you need to have chosen the 'right' side or face an eternity of hell. No longer do we come to the manger seeking love, but instead we come in fear for our eternal soul. No longer is this a message of hope and love that can transform and inspire the way we live now but is all about buying our way into eternity when the whole message of the gospels is that we do not need to do this. The angel host on the hillside that night declared it the moment that Jesus was born, They bring good tidings of great joy which will be to ALL people. For today in the town of David a baby is born who is Christ the Lord.

Similarly, poor St Nicholas who was trying to live a life which was faithful to God and honoured Jesus, has been taken and become something not of love and giving to others, but a way to try and control children in the run up to Christmas day with threats of coal and withdrawn gifts. Anything can be corrupted and misused by people and sadly often will be. So this Christmas, as I am doing all this again because we have a beautiful daughter who will be 2 in February, I won't be telling her about how Santa won't bring presents if she misbehaves. Nor will I tell her how Jesus is watching every move and, depending on what she thinks or feels or does, will show up at any moment to love her or condemn her to hell.

My household and I are declaring that we will no longer be a house who believe because of fear, but instead we love because we were loved first. This Christmas time we look for the coming of the God of love, the God of good news for ALL people and a call for us to care for others and give of ourselves and that love to others because God is here right now, among us. Jesus Immanuel - God IS here!!