Pastor Devin Strong. Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church.

Years ago, when I first saw an image like this one (below), I was offended. It looked to me like our consumer-driven culture was trying to invade Christians’ sacred celebration of Jesus’ birth, but then I learned something that completely changed my perspective: The cultural myth of Santa Claus—a styled pronunciation of St. Nicholas—has its roots in a real person! 

St. Nicholas was a Christian pastor living in Myra, Italy in the fourth century. Nicholas was born into a wealthy family and was known for his love of children and his generosity with struggling people. The red coat and hat that Santa wears are reminders of the red robes and miter the actual Nicholas wore as a bishop.

Of course, legends as deep as our American Santa draw from many sources. Much of our understanding of Santa comes from the famous poem. Twas The Night Before Christmas that a dentist named Clement Moore composed to entertain his children in the 1820’s, and our physical picture of the right jolly old elf owes much to an advertising campaign for, of all things, Coca-Cola! I have no idea who thought up the elf-assistants or their residence at the North Pole.

Other countries have their own versions of Santa. In France, they call him Papa Noel, and in Britain, he’s Father Christmas, but all these fanciful legends grew out of the powerful life story of a saintly Christian leader, so I don’t mind pictures of Santa kneeling at the manger anymore. In fact, when I think of St. Nicholas, they touch my heart.

In truth, I have softened considerably on all the cultural trappings of Christmas. Yes, it’s annoying that the Christmas commercials start on the day after Halloween, and some radio stations start playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving. Yes, too many Christmas lights can look gawdy, the piles of cookies can strain our diets, and the pressure to buy, buy, buy is dangerous and not at all what Jesus would want.

But I have come to see most of our secular Christmas traditions as a deep searching for a holy pause in ordinary life. Whether they know it or not, people are looking for their lives and our culture to be transformed into something more joyous, gentle, and generous than we find most of the time.

As Christians, our job is to gently remind folks that they are not going to find what they are looking for in Amazon’s Black Friday deals.

Instead, we need to point them and ourselves back to the baby Jesus and his real-life servant, St. Nicholas. May you meet the Lord in the manger this season.

You are invited to join us at Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church for worship at 7 PM on Christmas Eve!