Satan vs Santa Claus

Comparing Santa to Satan

To most children, and many adults, Santa Claus is a personification of all things Christmas. To children, he is a bringer of wonderful gifts. To adults, Santa symbolizes the giving nature of the season.

There are those, however, take a different view of Santa Claus. Pointing to the anagram of his name, many people imply that Santa is in fact an agent of Satan, if not the devil himself. They claim that Santa's true cause is to use material possessions to divert people's attention from the true meaning of Christmas; namely, the birth of Jesus Christ.

Of course, their argument is not limited to the mere reshuffling of letters. The primary thrust of their argument stems from the spurious attachment of Santa Claus to the legend of St. Nicholas.

According to those who object to Santa, the documentation proving the origin of Santa as St. Nicholas is spurious. Even the Catholic Church, they point out, no longer officially acknowledges his feast day, due to a lack of substantial evidence that such a saint even existed.

Even if Santa were adapted from St. Nicholas, they add, several laws in place among the Reformation and New Amsterdam Dutch immigrants during this time period bar any celebration of St. Nicholas to be illegal, in keeping with their belief that the veneration of saints was considered heresy.

Those who believe in the wickedness of Santa consider his origins to be of a more pagan leaning--pagan, in the minds of many Christians, equates directly to Satanic. The model for the modern Santa Claus was instead Sinterklaas, a figure created from the images of the Norse god Odin. His bearded visage and alignment with the red element of fire were adapted to fit within Christian belief structure and attached to St. Nicholas at the time of the Viking people's conversion to the Christian faith.

Those who argue that Santa is not aligned with Satan point out several flaws with this argument. First is the fact that many aspects of Christianity have been adapted from pagan beliefs, most glaringly the celebration of the divine birth of a savior during the Winter Solstice--as evidenced by the legends of Celtic religion, Mithraism, and Zoroastrianism, to name a few. Second, the belief that Protestant Reformation among the Dutch ran counter to the belief in Santa Claus as the bringer of gifts is only partially true. The Protestants, in their desire to move away from the veneration of saints, renamed the gift bringer Christkindl, or Christ-child. This name was later bastardized in America to Kris Kringle, a common nickname for Santa. In another interesting twist, the banning of the veneration of saints caused the Protestants to move the gift-giving date from December 6th (the Feast of St. Nicholas) to December 24th (in honor of the Christ-child. Thus, the Protestants are responsible for Santa's Christmas Eve visit becoming legend. Finally, the image of Santa Claus as a fat, jolly, bearded man in a red suit did not exist in popular American culture until a picture of him as such was created by the famed cartoonist and nemesis of Boss Tweed, Thomas Nast. Before that time, he has been depicted in a variety of ways--some even resembling Fred Astaire.

In the end, the argument as to Santa's place in Christmas tradition seems to stem from the belief that he is taking the place of Christ as the object of veneration among children. Those who think otherwise believe that there is a place for both in the Christmas tradition. In the end, the facts are open to interpretation and personal belief.