Santa Claus in the Revival of Traditional Catholicism

[Stalwart]

Dear friends,

My wife and I are decided that from this, our first Christmas with children, and onwards, we will not 'do' the Santa Claus thing. Naturally, this comes as a shock and a disappointment to our respective nominal families. Instead, our hope is to present the gift-giving element of Christmas Day as an expression of Christian charity (in that what we do to each other, we do to Christ, and we do this on His birthday as a gift and expression of love to Him, hoping that this makes sense in the mind of a child).

There are several reasons we've come to this decision:

1. We wish to ensure that the emphasis of Christmas in our children's minds remains fixed on Our Blessed Lord, as it is a religious affair before it is a cultural one.

2. Even if it can be considered merely trivial fun, we recognise the secular Santa Claus tradition as a perversion of the feast-season (by infecting it with a terrible strain of materialism and entitlement). By its rejection, we hope to foster in our children that healthy contempt of the world which we both know, as cradle-reverts, is necessary for a strongly-grounded faith.

My question is this: Do you and your spouse 'do' the secular Santa Claus tradition with your Catholic family?

And do you think this is the way to go, given the state of things, where all of us are responsible for bringing up our families as proper members of the Body of Christ?

Pax.

[Ioannes_L]

Santa Claus might have started as some innocent (or not) copycat of the great S. Nicholas of Bari, but nowadays he's just the visible symbol of insane consumerism and the ever growing modern attempt to hide and ignore the true meaning of Christmas. Kids are taught to wait for this fictional character with all their hearts, and not the Infant at Bethlehem, our Lord and Savior. You could encourage a devotion towards S. Nicholas, telling his story and even imitating his charity during the season, providing for those who have nothing and even buying some toys for the poor, all in the true spirit of Christmas.
Bringing them together and asking their help to prepare the nativity scene might help as well, with the children slowly placing the figures during the Advent, moving the wise men across the house in remembrance of their long journey towards Bethlehem, only placing S. Joseph and Our Lady in Dec 24th, and Our Lord at midnight or early in the morning.

These are the things I'll put to practice when, by God's will, I have my own family.

[MacPasquale]

I'll give you an additional reason not to do it.  It may end up destroying your child's trust in you and their faith in God.

This was my experience. 

When I was told that Santa did not exist I lost all faith in the supernatural and became an atheist until my 20s.  If I was lied to about santa being real it seemed reasonable to assume that adults were lied to about the existence of God.

[Augustinian]

We've already established St. Nicholas' day in my house. But the kids are all into Santa too. I don't see evil in it if you moderate their expectations (which is difficult with toddlers).

[Imperator Caesar Trump]

Dear friends,

My wife and I are decided that from this, our first Christmas with children, and onwards, we will not 'do' the Santa Claus thing. Naturally, this comes as a shock and a disappointment to our respective nominal families. Instead, our hope is to present the gift-giving element of Christmas Day as an expression of Christian charity (in that what we do to each other, we do to Christ, and we do this on His birthday as a gift and expression of love to Him, hoping that this makes sense in the mind of a child).

There are several reasons we've come to this decision:

1. We wish to ensure that the emphasis of Christmas in our children's minds remains fixed on Our Blessed Lord, as it is a religious affair before it is a cultural one.

2. Even if it can be considered merely trivial fun, we recognise the secular Santa Claus tradition as a perversion of the feast-season (by infecting it with a terrible strain of materialism and entitlement). By its rejection, we hope to foster in our children that healthy contempt of the world which we both know, as cradle-reverts, is necessary for a strongly-grounded faith.

My question is this: Do you and your spouse 'do' the secular Santa Claus tradition with your Catholic family?

And do you think this is the way to go, given the state of things, where all of us are responsible for bringing up our families as proper members of the Body of Christ?

Pax.

I was leaning toward not doing it as well

[AgnesSTL]

For whatever our practice is worth:

We have five children. We observe St Nicholas Day with great excitement--the children receive oranges and chocolates in their shoes and we read aloud together several books on St Nicholas. My children understand that modern-day "Santa Claus" is a secularized version of St. Nicholas. I have explained to them that many families, including many Catholic families, have a tradition of telling their small children that they will be visited by Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and that it is Santa who brings presents. Although we have not presented Santa as real to our kids, I do point out to them that the Santa tradition brings much joy to many. I don't have a problem with people who like to "do Santa"; my parents did, and it made for many wonderful memories when I was small. My kids understand that they are not to "announce" to their friends that Santa is not real, because each family's practice is their own business.

[Eric F]

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2013...-heretics/