toldailytopic: Santa Claus: harmless holiday tradition, or agent of darkness?

[genuineoriginal]

It is interesting to me that most people have no problem with Santa Claus knowing when you are sleeping and when you are awake.
Most people have no problem with Santa Claus keeping lists of who is naughty and who is nice.

But when it comes to God, most people have a lot of problem with the concept of a God that keeps record of everything a person says and does and who will use those records against them at the Judgment.

 

[elohiym]

It is interesting to me that most people have no problem with Santa Claus knowing when you are sleeping and when you are awake.
Most people have no problem with Santa Claus keeping lists of who is naughty and who is nice.

Santa works for Homeland Security?

 

[Ktoyou]

At our house Santa is just kind of a silly joke. We don't attempt to make our kids believe that Santa is real but we also don't freak out about having the character be a part of the holiday tradition (sorta like egg nog and Christmas trees).

If our kids ever ask about him we tell them the truth.

Christmas is a fun holiday in the same way that Independence Day is a fun holiday. Santa is to Christmas as fireworks are to the 4th of July. If you aren't careful with fireworks you might blow your fingers off.

This is actually a difficult topic for me. I will spare you all the details and go to a direct answer. I chose to celebrate Christmas as a holy day honouring the birth of Christ. This along with the Christmas tree and presents stating ‘from mama and daddy’ not Santa. As to facing the overwhelming norm of Santa presence, I told my kids Santa was mainly in honour of St. Nicholas and not a custom we practiced, further, that he was not the mythical creature of the north pole with elves and reindeer. If such actually was the case, how long would those deer last in Georgia?

 

[genuineoriginal]

Santa works for Homeland Security?

They wish!

 

[kmoney]

At our house Santa is just kind of a silly joke. We don't attempt to make our kids believe that Santa is real but we also don't freak out about having the character be a part of the holiday tradition (sorta like egg nog and Christmas trees).

If our kids ever ask about him we tell them the truth.

That sounds about my take, and how I would approach things if I had children. My parents, especially my mother, avoided Santa completely. The only Santa figurine we had in our house was of him bowing to Jesus in the manger. I tend to think that goes a little too far. I don't believe I would tell the Santa Clause story to my kids but I also wouldn't attempt to get rid of all Santa-ness from the holiday.


So to answer the TOD, harmless.

 

[Jackson]

Harmless... :guitar:

 

[mmstroud]

People, wake up!!! Everybody knows 'Santa' has the same letters as 'Satan'.


:shocked:


Just kidding!!!


When we had our kids we were still fairly young in the Lord. We didn't make a big deal about it, but our kids have always known that the Santa Claus of our culture wasn't real, and that their gifts came from Mom and Dad.

Probably more important to let our kids know about the wonder of the incarnation and what it meant for Jesus to leave Heaven and lay aside his Glory to come and die on the cross to redeem his people than to freak out about Santa.

 

[Ktoyou]

It is interesting to me that most people have no problem with Santa Claus knowing when you are sleeping and when you are awake.
Most people have no problem with Santa Claus keeping lists of who is naughty and who is nice.

But when it comes to God, most people have a lot of problem with the concept of a God that keeps record of everything a person says and does and who will use those records against them at the Judgment.

An old acquaintance of mine who I had known since high school had rejected God is college and remained an odd mixture of conservative ideology and humanism. She once smugly stated to me Santa was for children and God for adults.

Having to reveal the fancy of such make-believe as Santa, Easter Rabbit and tooth fairy, her thought process, I find common in adolescence might have been one single root as to why I chose reject these artificial customs.

 

[GuySmiley]

We have told our kids as soon as they could understand that Santa isn't real. But we still joke and pretend as if he is, and the kids love to go along with it. Its fun. We discuss the Christian meaning of Christmas all through the month of December, in our own form of Advent.

 

[GuySmiley]

My Charismatic answer:

Of course we teach that Santa is real, and so should you . . . but, Santa is an evil spirit. Its no coincidence that Santa can be rearranged into Satan. Santa-Satan has been released on Earth to take the focus off of Jesus. He will lead you straight to hell. Every Thanksgiving, we annoint our house with oil and assign angels at all corners of our house to guard against Santa. We also assign an angel to the chimney, duh. I've ordered a prayer cloth from Robert Tilton which Robert himself annointed especially to drive off the Santa demon.

 

[genuineoriginal]

My Charismatic answer:

Of course we teach that Santa is real, and so should you . . . but, Santa is an evil spirit. Its no coincidence that Santa can be rearranged into Satan. Santa-Satan has been released on Earth to take the focus off of Jesus. He will lead you straight to hell. Every Thanksgiving, we annoint our house with oil and assign angels at all corners of our house to guard against Santa. We also assign an angel to the chimney, duh. I've ordered a prayer cloth from Robert Tilton which Robert himself annointed especially to drive off the Santa demon.

Wow.
Did the oil stain on the prayer cloth form the image of the "blessed virgin," too?

 

[GuySmiley]

Wow.
Did the oil stain on the prayer cloth form the image of the "blessed virgin," too?

Don't get crazy! Thats Catholic and I rebuke that!

 

[Vaquero45]

My Charismatic answer:

Of course we teach that Santa is real, and so should you . . . but, Santa is an evil spirit. Its no coincidence that Santa can be rearranged into Satan. Santa-Satan has been released on Earth to take the focus off of Jesus. He will lead you straight to hell. Every Thanksgiving, we annoint our house with oil and assign angels at all corners of our house to guard against Santa. We also assign an angel to the chimney, duh. I've ordered a prayer cloth from Robert Tilton which Robert himself annointed especially to drive off the Santa demon.

All good ideas, I'll only add, cookies and milk left out at night, laced with Popoff's special Miracle Spring Water. If Santa gets thru your first line of defenses and the R. Tilton cloth doesn't immolate him completely, the cookies and milk will finish the job.

http://www.peterpopoff.org/
For your Santa defense needs....

 

[Alate_One]

Lie to your children at Christmas about a magical man who flies in the clouds and "gives gifts to men" and who bestows his favor upon all those around the world who believe in him...

And your kids will have more reason to believe the same thing about Jesus at Christmas, a magical man who flew into the sky, who the Bible says "gave gifts to men," and who bestows his favor upon all those around the world who believe in him.

I know it was a factor in my own rejection of God. Just another myth parents tell their children to trick them into being good. A nice story with good intentions...

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I would never curse a child with such lies.

Now, at the same time, I would share with children stories about the historical Nicholas. Nothing wrong with a little reality and truth in a season that honor's God's gift to the world through giving gifts to each other, and the story of the real "saint" Nicholas is just fine to go with that, as long as the focus is on the real, historical-yet-supernatural miracle of God that is the birth of Jesus Christ.

I agree with the above. While Santa won't damage everyone's faith once they find out the truth, enough may be that I think its something to avoid teaching children about.

I had plenty of make-believe fun without Santa. Its always bothered me how Santa supplants the story of Christ from secular society.

But really why knowingly *lie* to your children? The lengths some parents go to propagate the idea of Santa is really ridiculous. And NORAD and TV is into the act these days . . . guess it will be a lesson in "don't believe everything you see on TV."

 

[assuranceagent]

Lie to your children at Christmas about a magical man who flies in the clouds and "gives gifts to men" and who bestows his favor upon all those around the world who believe in him...

And your kids will have more reason to believe the same thing about Jesus at Christmas, a magical man who flew into the sky, who the Bible says "gave gifts to men," and who bestows his favor upon all those around the world who believe in him.

I know it was a factor in my own rejection of God. Just another myth parents tell their children to trick them into being good. A nice story with good intentions...

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I would never curse a child with such lies.

Now, at the same time, I would share with children stories about the historical Nicholas. Nothing wrong with a little reality and truth in a season that honor's God's gift to the world through giving gifts to each other, and the story of the real "saint" Nicholas is just fine to go with that, as long as the focus is on the real, historical-yet-supernatural miracle of God that is the birth of Jesus Christ.

Well. Why don't you just kick a puppy? :mmph:

I say harmless. I believed in Santa when I was a kid. And I still believe in God. And now that I AM santa, I can vouch for his authenticity. And boy does he every love cookies. ( which I note you left out of your Jesus parallel.) lain:

 

[elohiym]

I'll just say this: if a fat guy in a red suit comes down my chimney, I'm gonna put a bullet in him.

 

[genuineoriginal]

Proof that Santa is evil
1 Santa has the same letters as SATAN!
2 Uses midgets as slave labor
3 Licensed his greedy butt to 5,329 commercials
4 More children sit on his lap than Michael Jackson's
5 He sees you when your sleeping! What a perv!
6 Ran over a goofball singer's grandma
7 He causes Christian children to forget who the first six letters of Christmas are for
8 Scraggly beard is too much like Osama's
9 He discriminates against Jewish children
10 Breaks into little children's houses at night
11 Called my mom a ho three times
12 Collects welfare 11 months of the year
13 Gives children presents for sitting on his lap
14 Overworked reindeer has PETA upset
15 Has sat in more fiery chimneys than ... SATAN!
16 Helps gangsta rappers and the Dixie Chicks go multiplatinum

 

[assuranceagent]

I'll just say this: if a fat guy in a red suit comes down my chimney, I'm gonna put a bullet in him.

You'd shoot JESUS!!?? :shocked:


...wait...The Graphite's got me all confused now. :think:

 

[The Berean]

My Charismatic answer:

Of course we teach that Santa is real, and so should you . . . but, Santa is an evil spirit. Its no coincidence that Santa can be rearranged into Satan. Santa-Satan has been released on Earth to take the focus off of Jesus. He will lead you straight to hell. Every Thanksgiving, we annoint our house with oil and assign angels at all corners of our house to guard against Santa. We also assign an angel to the chimney, duh. I've ordered a prayer cloth from Robert Tilton which Robert himself annointed especially to drive off the Santa demon.

Tsk..tsk,..tsk... The real Charismatic answer is that since God has given us complete authority over all demons we can COMMAND the Santa-Satan spirit to be cast out of our homes and bound on Earth.

 

[Lighthouse]

He's an agent of Interpol.