Santa suits can show true meaning of season

Column published in The Lima News, 12-17-05
Thank goodness for the innocent belief of children this time of year.
Only they have the love in their hearts to see the true meaning in Christmas when they see a Santa Claus on every corner.
If you spend any time walking through a mall this time of year, and most of us must at some point, you realize how hard it is to avoid ol’ St. Nick. He peaks out from nearly every advertisement. He hawks toys at the toy store as easily as spatulas at the home goods one.
And they all look different.
You’d think that would be confusing to a young child. A 4-year-old child runs only to the arms of her mother, after all, and can cer-tainly tell the difference between one old man claiming to be Father Christmas and the next.
Somehow they see behind the different facial features. They ignore a real beard vs. a fake beard. They don’t care if he has blue eyes or brown. He can be black as easily as white or any other shade in between.
That’s not what the children see.
They see generosity.
They see compassion.
They see love.
In short, they see God.
It’s not popular to say you see God nowadays. There’s a tendency to substitute out the word “Christmas” and use “holidays” instead, for fear of offending a non-Christian religion.
Most major religions acknowledge there probably was a Jesus Christ, though. Those same religions generally acknowledge He was a good person and something of a prophet. Acting like Him isn’t the worst idea in the world, no matter what your ideas might be of the Christian religions.
Which brings us back to Santa Claus or whatever other term you might like for the guy in the big red suit. His heritage generally traces back to St. Nicholas, the bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey. He supposedly came from a wealthy family but gave all his money to the poor.
The Dutch introduced the red suit with their Sinterklaas, who wore a red bishop’s costume including the large cap.
Over time, society transformed him into a jolly old elf who kindly delivers toys to all the good boys and girls in the world.
Some see a Santa on every corner as a sign secularism and sacrilege somehow took over the spirit of the Christmas season. Certainly the season took on a more economic tone than originally planned, but the basis remains love and charity for your fellow man.
If anything, the Santas on every corner prove the true meaning of the season is as pure now as it was when a baby laid in a manger some 2,000-plus years ago, if only to those who realize the power of the jolly old elf.
Children universally love him, and they know the importance of believing in Santa Claus. Even the ones who run and scream from him understand what he stands for; his presence just somehow terrifies them.
They know they’re seeing generosity, compassion and love personified in every face. They’re seeing God in every face. They under-stand the overwhelming concept of omnipresence unflinchingly.
We spend so much time teaching our children what’s wrong or what’s right. Now is a good time to start learning from them.