Who is Santa Claus? Children are taught that he is the person who performs miracles and wonders every Christmas Eve. He is able to create and deliver virtually any present any child can imagine. He can fly through the sky and deliver these gifts to billions of children all over the world - all during one night. And not just any old presents but exactly the ones desired by each individual child.

In addition, children are taught that Santa Claus is all-good and all-just; He rewards the good children and leaves the bad ones empty handed. Perfect goodness and justice are also attributes of deity. In other words, Santa is really a god who performs miracles by his own powers. To be sure, he is a kind of childish god. He is concerned only about children, and he brings childish presents. But that's the only sort of god who could have any meaning for the young child. Adults think of their deity as the creator of all things visible and invisible, but such an entity is beyond a child's comprehension. What children can relate to is a creator of toys and goodies. While grownups characterize their god as all-holy, all merciful, all-just, all-powerful, omnipresent and infinitely perfect, this conception is too vast, nebulous and remote to have any meaning for a little child. Children from 2 to 8 - the Santa Claus years - cannot grasp such a transcendent abstraction; they can only relate to a material being. Santa is such a god-in-the-flesh - a deity tailor-made for children.


Santa has not always appeared the way we think of him today. The first well-known gift-giver was a true person--St. Nicholas. He lived in Myra (today we know it as Turkey) in about 300A.D. Born an only child of a wealthy family, he was orphaned at an early age when both parents died of the plague. He grew up in a monastery and at the age of 17 became one of the youngest priests ever. Many stories are told of his generosity as he gave his wealth away in the form of gifts to those in need, especially children. Legends tell of him either dropping bags of gold down chimneys or throwing the bags through the windows where they landed in the stockings hung from the fireplace to dry. Some years later Nicholas became a bishop--hence the bishop's hat or miter, long flowing gown, white beard and red cape. After his death he was elevated to sainthood. Eventually the Catholic Church started celebrating Christmas and St. Nicholas was incorporated into the season. 

Finally, from 1931 to 1964, Haddon Sundblom created a new Santa each Christmas for Coca-Cola advertisements that appeared world-wide on the back covers of Post and National Geographic magazines. This is the Santa we know and love today with a red suit trimmed with white fur, leather boots and belt, long white beard and a pack of toys slung onto his back. 
History of Santa in America:

Santa Claus can be traced back for four centuries in the U.S.:

1600's: The Puritans made it illegal to mention St. Nicolas' name. People were not allowed to exchange gifts, light a candle, or sing Christmas carols. 
17th century: Dutch immigrants brought with them the legend of Sinter Klaas. 
1773: Santa first appeared in the media as St. A Claus. 
1804: The New York Historical Society was founded with St. Nicolas as its patron saint. Its members engaged in the Dutch practice of gift-giving at Christmas. 
1809: Washington Irving, writing under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, included Saint Nicolas in his book "A History of New York." Nicolas is described as riding into town on a horse. 
1812: Irving, revised his book to include Nicolas riding over the trees in a wagon. 
1821: William Gilley printed a poem about "Santeclaus" who was dressed in fur and drove a sleigh drawn by a single reindeer. 
1822: Dentist Clement Clarke Moore is believed by many to have written a poem "An Account of a Visit from Saint Nicolas," which became better known as "The Night before Christmas." Santa is portrayed as an elf with a miniature sleigh equipped with eight reindeer which are named in the poem as Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donner, Prancer, and Vixen. Others attribute the poem to a contemporary, Henry Livingston, Jr. 
1841: J.W. Parkinson, a Philadelphia merchant, hired a man to dress up in a "Criscringle" outfit and climb the chimney of his store. 
1863: Illustrator Thomas Nast created images of Santa for the Christmas editions of Harper's Magazine. These continued through the 1890's. 
1860s: President Abraham Lincoln asked Nast to create a drawing of Santa with some Union soldiers. This image of Santa supporting the enemy had a demoralizing influence on the Confederate army -- an early example of psychological warfare. 
1897: Francis P Church, Editor of the New York Sun, wrote an editorial in response to a letter from an eight year-old girl, Virginia O'Hanlon. She had written the paper asking whether there really was a Santa Claus. It has become known as the "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter. 
1920's: The image of Santa had been standardized to portray a bearded, over-weight, jolly man dressed in a red suit with white trim.
1931: Haddon Sundblom, illustrator for The Coca-Cola ™ company drew a series of Santa images in their Christmas advertisements until 1964. The company holds the trademark for the Coca-Cola Santa design. 
1949: Johnny Marks wrote the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Rudolph was relocated to the North Pole where he was initially rejected by the other reindeer who wouldn't let him play in their reindeer games because of his strange looking nose. The song was recorded by Gene Autry and became his all-time best seller. Next to "White Christmas" it is the most popular song of all time. 
1993: An urban folk tale began to circulate about a Japanese department store displaying a life-sized Santa Claus being crucified on a cross. It never happened. 
1997: Artist Robert Cenedella drew a painting of a crucified Santa Claus. It was displayed in the window of the New York's Art Students League and received intense criticism from some religious groups. His drawing was a protest. He attempted to show how Santa Claus had replaced Jesus Christ as the most important personality at Christmas time. 




The Theology of Santa
Santa, as taught to most children, has most of the attributes of God:

He is virtually omnipresent. He can visit hundreds of millions of homes in one night. 
He is omniscient. He monitors each child; he is all-seeing and all-knowing; he knows when they are bad and good. 
Although not omnipotent, he does have great powers. He can manufacture gifts for hundreds of millions of children, and deliver them in one night -- each to the correct child. 
He is all-good and all-just. He judges which children have shown good behavior and rewards them appropriately. Bad children are bypassed or receive a lump of coal. 
He is eternal. 
He rewards good and punishes bad behavior. 

However, there are negative aspects to Santa's behavior that can damage a child's self-esteem:

In practice, children are not rewarded with gifts according to their behavior; they receive presents according to the amount of money that their parents are willing or able to spend on them at Christmas time. A child may receive little or nothing from Santa because his/her parents are poor. Unfortunately, the child has probably adsorbed from the media and their friends only bad children get nothing from Santa. He/she might begin to look upon themselves as a bad person. This may well damage their self esteem. 
Most children in Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Jehovah's Witnesses or some other faith traditions do not receive gifts from Santa. But when they go to school, they see that their Christian contemporaries have been given presents. They might feel that they are less worthy than their friends, or that their religion is inferior to Christianity. To protect from this kind of mental development, most of the Non-Christian Parents should think some alternatives.



What should children be taught about Santa Claus?
A "Santa Truth Poll" on familyeducation.com shows that, in the estimation of adults, most children stop believing in Santa Claus between the ages of 8 and 10. 12 

There are many opinions on what we should teach children about Santa Claus:

Santa Claus is an important part of childhood: Carleton Kendrick, Ed.M., LCSW believes that "all children have the right to be fascinated and enchanted by the nurturing, age-old myths and fables of their culture. Santa Claus, and yes, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy engage a young child's sense of wonder." He implies in his essay that parents should originally teach their children that Santa exists. He suggests that when the children develop doubts about the reality of Santa, that the parents refrain from admitting the truth. Rather, they should stand by to support their kids when his/her "fantasies and myths grudgingly give way to more mature, confusing realities."

Belief in Santa Claus is dangerous: The Rev. John Eich suggests that teaching a child about Santa can backfire. "When a parent says 'Yes, there really is a Santa Claus and his reindeer can fly,' he is no longer playing a game. The parent is lending his personal authority as a parent to the myth, giving it the ring of truth." When the child later finds out that there is no Santa Claus, then she/he might also doubt other parental teachings. 

From Engineering Prospective:

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each."

Teaching about Santa as a myth: Parents can teach the historical legends associated with St. Nicolas. They are great stories which discuss the importance of generosity and sharing even if they are based on events that never happened. At the same time, parents can teach Santa Clause as a modern secular/cultural myth. Children can still enjoy the story without actually believing that Santa exists. Families can still pretend that gifts arrived from Santa. Since the child has always considered Santa to be an imaginary person, he/she will not be disillusioned at their parents when their friends tell them that Santa does not exist. 

A lesson for today
Parents should be aware that fostering a belief in the Santa Claus of today may backfire later. A child looks to parents to furnish everything--food, comfort, courage, and truth. When a parent says, “Yes, there really is a Santa Claus, and his reindeer can really fly,” he is no longer playing a game. That parent is lending his personal authority as a parent to the myth, giving it the ring of truth. What happens later to a parent’s credibility when the child finds out that the story isn’t true? Maybe the other things a parent has said about safety, moral values, right or wrong aren’t true either. 

If you once believed in a man who knew what you were doing, who had amazing abilities, and who gave you nice things, and he turned out to be a fake, why should you believe in another man who knows what you are doing, has amazing abilities, gives you nice things--Jesus Christ? If you get burned once, why get burned the second time? Wouldn’t it be better to be honest with our children right from the start, and teach them the difference between truth and make-believe?

Some people love Santa Claus so much that they forget about Jesus. Some churches burn the present day Santa Claus in effigy. Both extremes are too much. It’s better to remember the real Nicholas, who can serve as an example of how to really keep Christmas.

Don’t think “Look what the world is coming to.” Rather think “Look who’s coming into the world!” A little girl was once asked, “What is a saint?” Thinking of the heroes of faith who are pictured in stained glass windows she answered, “A saint is someone who lets the light in.” That’s how we best perhaps can use the myths about Santa Claus. Let’s use them to let the “light in,” Jesus Christ the light of the world. Let’s keep Santa Claus always kneeling at the manger of his Savior and ours. 



Santa Claus has at least temporarily saved Christmas, both for Christians and for others!

Sources taken from:
http://www.2think.org/hii/santa.shtml 
http://answers.org/Issues/Santa.html
http://www.baltimoremd.com/humor/santaengineer.html
http://www.wels.net/sab/nl/x-santa.html