The difference between Jesus and Santa Claus

Over the years, as pastor in local churches, whose name happens to really be "Nicholas," I've used the Sunday nearest Dec. 6, "St. Nicholas Day" to tell the story of "The Real St. Nicholas," Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor (now Turkey), in the early 4th century. That St. Nicholas and the modern Santa Claus as described in the song only dimly resemble each other.

dark, so did Jesus get you a MacBook?

Image of a punctured, bleeding Jesus suffering on an ancient execution device...?
Image of Santa Claus...?
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Um that would be EASTER, try baby in a manger for Christmas

Santa is lily white like Sarah Palin.

Jesus is dark skinned like her Muslim enemies.

Oh, I forgot - evangelicals changed Jesus' eye color to blue, lightened his skin and dyed his hair blond. How did they do that?

Image of a punctured, bleeding Jesus suffering on an ancient execution device...?

Image of Santa Claus...?

Image of a punctured, bleeding Jesus suffering on an ancient execution device...?

Image of Santa Claus...?

gee, it's real hard to determine which freaks kids out more.

Most of Santa Claus' follower are happy and filled with joy this season. Many of Jesus' followers are angry because someone says, "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" and are filled with hatred for those different year 'round.

As a kid, I always found Santa a lot easier to believe in than Jesus and the Judeo-Christian God. Santa is a generous spirit, and he doesn't discriminate against you because of your religion. Sure, he may watch you all the time, but we always got rewarded, and not just with stuff on our lists! The best presents were often the ones Santa left for us that we hadn't asked for!

The Judeo-Christian God, on the other hand, always seemed to me like an invisible bully who was just waiting to punish you for something you did or said wrong. Sure, you got rewarded...if you converted to the Christian religion! Sorry, but threatening to burn nonbelievers in hell for failing to convert to a religion that's wrong for them does NOT win points, and neither does denying heaven to our pets who have shown us nothing but genuine unconditional love and nonjudgemental friendship when the humans in this world have bullied, spurned, or abused us! Don't even get me started on people who use the Christian faith as an excuse for bullying or bigotry against anybody who's different from them!

Santa doesn't discriminate, and he's generous to a fault. The Judeo-Christian deity always seemed to have this "you'd better obey me or else!" attitude with no real rewards (all religions have some form of an afterlife, FYI). Which one to believe in was a no-brainer!

As a little kid, I was scared of Santa too. I wanted the toys, but the whole Santa-thing made me a little nervous, and there are no pictures of me sitting on Santa's lap, since I cried, even at the suggestion.

I don't think it is a little thing. In the memory of my childhood, it was kind of a big deal.

Not that I am against Santa, or want to stamp out the Santa custom; just telling my experiences with him.

"And Pilate spake thus: 'Are you the one that they call King of the Elves?'"

"And Jesus replied: 'Ho, ho, ho!'"

--Nicholas 20, 12

On a scale of 1 to 10 this topic gets a 2 -miled interest - yet little time to fret over the spirit of Christmas being defined while rushing to the mall.

Yes Jesus or your God forgives, but with that bag of coal, Santa judges and therefore til the eve of the 24th, someone might just be pleading with Ol St Nick.

If you are really concerned over the spirit of Christmas those bags of clothes from the Gap would intead be bags of food for the food shelf.

good tiding to all...

As a matter of basic journalistic integrity, I demand that the Post replace the above head shot of the authoress with a likeness that is less than three decades old.

I'll take Jesus over Santa anyday - I could use a little love and good will, besides Santa never got me that latest state of the art MacBook, and I haven't gotten presents in decades, and not even Christmas pudding, so out goes Santa. lol.

And I've made a back-of-the-couch warmer out of reindeer skin just to make my point. lol.

I have always Loved Christmas, the pageantry, caroling, snow (hopefully) and family gatherings for candlelight service, and on Christmas morning the opening of presents and Santa's Gifts.
Come on , the SPIRIT of Santa is every bit as real as the SPIRIT of Jesus!
Chanukah? I hope that our Jewish Citizens get as much of an uplifting sheer joy pleasure out of their holidays, as I do out of mine.

Like a certain movie . . . the Greatest Christmas morning I recall is when I opened Santa's gift of a Daisy BB Gun (it was the Daisy Carbine that came out a year before the Red Rider Carbine of the movie).
Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah - from an agnostic.

To motorfriend:

There is no war on Chanukah. Most christians and muslims rarely give it any thought. What would be a welcome change is if those of the Hebrew faith would allow their young children to believe in Santa Claus - no longer a religious figure - so they would not feel left out on xmas day. And besides, the Santa Claus magic only lasts until age 7 or 8. Then you can return to the 8 nights and your own December myth or do both, of course.

Santa is married but Jesus isn't.

hmmm, maybe Tony Perkins and Fred Phelps should look into that....

Great article, but Santa is not a prophet. Let us compare Jesus with some of the other prophets. Are you afraid to get killed? Sure you will, but it has been said: all it takes for the others to triumph, is for us to do nothing.

What's the difference between Christians and theocons?

Christians will allow you to go about your life unbothered but theocons never will.

A youngster, hanging on to his blanket, piped up, "Jesus will forgive you, but Santa Claus never will."

Why does a small child like this need forgiveness? Has he started a war like the one in Iraq which killed over 100,000 men, women and children?
An adult Christian did that, and Santa will indeed never forgive it.

Santa just does naughty and nice, either you get the GI Joe with the Kung Fu Grip or you don't.

Jesus and god and all that lot ... you can be as nice as Ghandi, a lifetime of good deeds, and still end up being tortured for eternity in hell because you were born in a country where the religious indoctrination is different ... or wrong, as your wonderful eternal loving god tells you.

Sounds like a bum deal to me.

Santa walking out of the fireplace is probably the commercialized version of Satan (TM). Most likely Christ would spend his birthday with the homeless.

I would like to commend Thrifty Mart for abstaining from the War on Christmas. When I went to check out, the clerk provided this wholesome salutation:

"Blessed be Christ Jesus and his Virgin Birth! In His name, we offer you 50% off the retail price. Hosannah in the highest!"

How much longer must we of the Hebrew Faith endure this War on Chanukah?

If Santa Claus makes a mistake and shimmies down the chimney of this Jewish home and wishes me a "Merry Christmas," Old St. Nick is getting a hot menorah up the wazoo!

"Get outa here, ya big fat bigot!"

God help the Goy if this War on Chanukah becomes a shooting war, cause I'm hoping for an AK-47 on the Eighth Day!

I still think it's funny that a kid is more creeped out by Santa than God. I mean, doesn't God know you from before you were born? If God is all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful--than hasn't God been watching on the toilet all along too?

Not to mention keeping an eye on the meconium production from within.

That's easy. Santa will eventually win. Afterall, even so-called Christians do the most opposite of Christian things to do and lie to their kids about how Santa is going to bring them presents after purchasing those same presents with credit because you really can't afford it right now (Bible talks about avoiding debt). Then they attend multiple "Christmas" parties where everyone makes light of overconsuming (gluttony) food and alcohol "during the holidays" as you proceed to do it. And during one of those parties you get a little too much of the spiked Nog, beer and tequila/Vodka/Jim Beam mixes you start having erotic fantasies about your friends/neigbors/relatives spouse/significant other (lust, covet). During the mingling they talk smack about folks who aren't in the conversation or even there to defend themselves. In fact, sometimes someone brings up politics and if it's like-minded folks they'll make all kinds of jokes about a particular political figure. For example, when you're with like-minded conservative "Christians" they will at some point during party talk smack about the president without merit simply to smack talk (slander). And you always have some dude or couple that love to talk about the new stuff they just bought, all the money and success they're having and/or how much they know or how much they've contributed to charity, just to make certain people feel lower for the stuff they've accomplished (greed, pride, extravagance, envy). Of course these are the same people who excuse not giving a nickel to a homeless guy. We all know how that works. See, the Bible addresses all kinds of sins, but Santa doesn't have such rules; Santa wins.

Get some perspective! Talk about taking a song -- and yourself -- too seriously? We aren't having enough actual problems so that we have to make one up...the "evil" Santa Claus bribing and threatening children? This discussion seems much more about a seminary professor having to have something to say in the Washington Post's "On Faith" column. In fact, I'm embarrassed to admit I took the time to click into something called, "Jesus vs. Santa." If it's the season for forgiving, isn't it also the season for dispensing with unnecessarily pitting of people and concepts against each other? Maybe a little coal in your stocking would be in order...o:)

"Santa gives bribes for being good, and if you're not good, Santa doesn't forgive."

No--he gives rewards for good behavior. Now, you can look upon coal in your stocking as a punishment, or as a visual reminder that you CAN do better.

In addition, that's not what every Santa does. In fact, the traditions regarding St. Nicholas vary widely (and he shows up on December 6th).

I dunno--God is a lot more punitive (than Santa Claus) and Jesus claimed to be God.

Jesus’ words in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”
John 8:58. Jesus declared, "I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. "

to jabandon: what is SIA. Please write out an abreviation or acronym the first time it is used. Thanks.

Ref. Santa: The concept of Santa is practice for theism. Much more appealing to children than God, Santa-belief teaches them they are being constantly watched, that they will be rewarded or punished by the watcher, that impossible things can REALLY happen, that there are invisible agents ever present, that you will be rewared for believeing this. The best thing about Santa is that by age 8 they have figured out that their parents have lied to them, fooled them, tricked them, play a game on them, conned them. It is the parents that need to be forgiven! My christmaas wish is that more adults will have the "8 year old" experience and realize that God belief is just as unnecessary and false - even though it may also be rewarding.

Disclosure: I'm with SIA, we don't need to forgive them. We have them all killed. You don't pull on Supermans cape, you don't spit into the wind and you don't mess with Santa. Right Jim?

Jesus single. Santa married and no doubt the Mrs. is putting ideas into his head. Santa feels like a number. Still the kids are all number one with Santa. He's working miracles, he doesn't need to resort to bribery. He isn't from Chicago.