Christmas used to be about the birth of Jesus, now it has devolved into a pagan holiday of orgiastic consumerism. One tool used by the hedonists to achieve this was Santa Claus.
Santa Claus is alledgedly based on Saint Nick, but how far he has strayed. Here is who Saint Nick really was:
“The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus’ words to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor,” Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.” (read more here)
Today we see Santa Claus used as an excuse not to help the poor but to increase our own material attachments through receiving gifts. Gifts aren’t given to the poor, but to friends and family with expectation of gifts in return.
How did Saint Nick get transformed into the Santa Claus we know today? It was a long trail but he was finally standardized into the image we have today by Coca Cola. He was an ad campaign figure for the the soda for 35 years starting in 1931. Like the Geico gecko is used today, a shill to sell a product. Drink useless, unnecessary, unhealthful Coke and be happy. Santa Claus was an ad icon who was so successful he has become the symbol of unnecessary consumption for the whole consumer society.
Christmas is no longer about Christ, who can bring inner peace. It is about gifts, that never satisfy the greed for more. Thank you Santa Claus.
View From a New Vrindaban Ridge 
December 14, 2008 at 6:31 pm
But I thought Christmas *began* as a pagan holiday… :)
December 15, 2008 at 9:59 am
Yes and no. The early Christians adapted the Saturnalia as the date of Christ’s birth, so a solstice festival predated Christmas. It is more like a reversion.
The intent was to honor Christ’s birth, not to get gifts.
I guess in a sense I am misusing the word pagan. In this context I was using it in a derogatory way like Christians would use it.
I actually have respect for true pagans who weren’t athiestic and should have used a different word like “a MUNDANE holiday of orgiastic consumerism.”
December 18, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Gosh,
If I had 4 hands I would give you 4 ‘thumbs up’ for this one…you brought nail and hammerhead together nicely. I had been wanting to pen something in the same vein, but you got there first….which is fine by me ’cause at least one of us made the point that was needed to be made…a job well-done and a hearty ‘Amen brother’ to you on this one.
BTW: my wife’s name is Myra…does that make me Bishop of Myra? lol!
postscript: I about fell out of my chair laughing when I saw the post ‘Gosh Leaves Comfort Zone’…I’m still laughing as I write this..
December 18, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I am glad I have brought some amusement to you. :-)
December 24, 2008 at 10:09 am
The following exchange appeared 111 years ago in the “New York Sun.” Perhaps the message conveyed is still appropriate in today’s overwhelmingly faithless society.–HD
—
Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
By Francis P. Church
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon
—
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
December 24, 2008 at 10:37 am
That would be a different Santa Claus than the current corrupted Coca Cola Santa Claus.