Tag: santa

The Santa clause

russian_icon_instaplanet_saint_nicholas

There’s an interesting discussion going on at emergent village about whether Christian parents should teach their children about Santa Claus or not.

As someone who believed in Santa growing up, I’ve always looked upon the idea and nostalgia of Santa with great fun memories. My granddad has always played up the hopes and dreams of Santa’s spirit and continues to even to this day. I’ve often given gifts addressed from Santa rather than my own name. And perhaps it’s that spirit of anonymous/mysterious giving that attracts me most.

I’ve feel like I’ve had a healthy understanding of Santa from my parents and I think that their teaching and upbringing have helped me to have a healthy understanding of “things” as well.

So, what’s the proper response and approach for future (or current) parents — (not that we’re expecting any children anytime soon)?

My kids (ages 3, 3, 1.5) are right on the precipice of imagination: scratchy monsters, dinosaurs, and talking wolves are all becoming characters in our everyday lives. That’s great, but what should I tell them about Santa?

It’s not just that if rearranged, the letters in his name spell Satan, though such a coincidence should give us all pause (just kidding). It’s more the race and class dimensions of Santa’s identity and his social role. Should we really encourage children to project their material aspirations onto an idealized white man? As a full-time working woman, I don’t want my own hard work, income generation, present-purchasing and gift-wrapping to not only be entirely discredited, but all attributed to a benevolent white man. And I also don’t want to encourage my children to associate material wealth, kindness and generosity, and feasting with whiteness and maleness.

Here are my comments ::

We’re not parents yet, but we’ve had discussions about what we might do about Santa Claus when that time comes. I don’t think we’ve come to a firm conclusion yet.

I heard some great stories this weekend on Travel with Rick Steves about how many other cultures celebrate Christmas and the holiday season (http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/streaming/program117a.asx).

What intrigued me most were the several countries who celebrate St. Nicholas Day on the 6th of December – and that’s when their children receive gifts. There are variations of this as well – and in Sicily, they receive gifts on All Saints Day (Nov 1) from dead relatives (creepy).

But it seemed like all cultures left the gifts to other dates and then celebrated Christmas on Dec 24-26 with church services and family. The gifts weren’t part of the picture.

So, what if we too celebrated St. Nicholas Day on Dec 6th and used it as a day to remember the saint (and other saints) who gave all they had. And we gave small gifts to our children on those days in remembrance of the saint. And then on Christmas morning, rather than rushing to open presents – we bundled up as a family and found ways to serve others – giving of our SELVES.

Another idea we’ve had is to take from the Jewish tradition of Hanukkah and give a small gift on each Sunday of Advent and then give a slightly larger one on Christmas morning.

What are some other creative ideas? What are you doing? What have you considered doing? Is it something to even be concerned with?

Tracking Santa then and now

From the Google blog:
It was more than half a century ago, on Christmas Eve in 1955, that a Sears Roebuck & Co. store in Colorado Springs advertised a special hotline number for kids to call Santa. What the company didn’t know at the time was that they had inadvertently misprinted the telephone number. Instead of Santa’s workshop, the phone number put kids through to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization responsible for the aerospace defense of the U. S. and Canada. Worse, it wasn’t just any number at NORAD: it was the commander-in-chief’s operations hotline. In the spirit of the season, Colonel Harry Shoup, the director of operations at the time, had his staff check radar data for any indication of a sleigh making its way south from the North Pole. They found that indeed there were signs of Santa, and merrily gave the children who called an update on his location. Thus, a tradition was born, and NORAD has continued to help children track Santa on Christmas Eve ever since.

Google is joining the effort. This holiday season, NORAD has partnered with Google to use technology including Google Maps, Google Earth, iGoogle and YouTube to track Santa. I can remember tracking Santa with my grandfather as a child, and I’m so proud to see my company carry on his vision of doing something this special for kids around the world.

The countdown begins December 1st on NORAD’s website, where families can find a new kid-friendly game or activity every day until December 24th. And starting at 1:00 am PST on December 24th, you’ll be able to track Santa’s trip in real time. You can download Google Earth and add the NORAD Tracks Santa iGoogle gadget to your iGoogle page anytime, but make sure to come back to noradsanta.org on December 24th to download the special Santa Tracking file for an enhanced 3D Santa-tracking experience.