What about Santa?
Hey everybody. Sorry about the long delay in the blogging. My blogging desire left me for a while but it’s back again so here we go.
I have been thinking a lot about the Christmas season lately being as it’s Christmas and all. I have been reminiscing on my childhood days of toys and Santa Clause, making cookies and presents under the tree. Discussions have also arisen between my wife and I as to how we will handle the Santa situation with our kids. The answer seems easy and I know what we are going to do, (Santa is a legend and Christmas is all about Jesus), but I can just imagine the day when I get a call from an irate parent telling me that my son spoiled Christmas because he told their kid that Santa is not real. All of this thinking about Santa has made me wonder, who is this guy?
Well it turns out that St. Nick dates clear back to the year 280 A.D. in the city of Smyrna which is located in modern day Turkey. It is said that this St. Nick gave away all of his inherited wealth to help the poor and the sick, mainly young children. The story and legend of St. Nick continued on even after the original St. Nick’s death and many St. Nick’s have followed in his place.
The Santa that we now have originates from Holland. His name is Sinter Klaas. I remember my Oma (grandma) who is from Holland telling me stories of this Sinter Klaas. He would go around the streets of Holland with his helpers and hand out gifts and fruit to the good kids and the bad kids really would recieve a lump of coal. Eventually a few dutch families made there way to America in 1773 and we got the Americanized version of Santa.
The story continued to grow, Santa got some reindeer to pull his sleigh, and he started magically dropping down chimneys. So with all of this Santa talk, I was just curious to hear what all of you think of Santa and how you remember Christmas as kids. Was Santa a big part of your Christmas’ or was Jesus at the center of Christmas as He should be?