I love you Santa

Santa Claus vs Jesus Christ. The eerie parallel between Santa and Jesus is rarely spoken of. In fact, it may be in bad taste. Taste is kinda subjective isn't it. My wife gave me something to taste the other day. She was making ginger snaps from scratch. She had cubes of raw candied ginger. It smelled great. She offered me one. I popped it in my mouth expecting a new Christmas delight. In about three seconds I was spitting the stuff all over the kitchen floor. She was laughing and I thought it was because she had tricked me. But no. It was just funny to see me gagging. She does actually like the stuff. I don't think I'll ever try a sugar plum or a chestnut. Taste is subjective. Let me cut to the chase. Everything is subjective. Including my statement: "Everything is subjective". So what is this eerie parallel between J.C. and Santa? I don't have to tell you do I? Believer or non-believer, you know where I'm going here. First, and most important: Santa Claus and all Christmas magic only work if you believe. Christianity only works if you believe. Next, the historical parallel. There are lots of Nicholas's in history. Legend suggests that our Christmas Nick was St. Nicholas of Patara, Turkey born around AD245. He became the Bishop of Myra. The name "Myra" comes from the resin myrrh. He performed many miracles and became famous. His most famous miracle was the saving of three maidens from a life of forced sin as their poor yet noble father could not pay their dowries. The Saint delivered enough gold for the dowries to the shabby castle by dropping a sack of gold down the chimney. Ever after, the townfolk, hoping to pick up a stray nugget, would put their socks under the chimney. The date of his death December 6 was celebrated with a golden feast. His character was melded into Christian tradition as the saint of children and sailors and merchants, and teachers and students. You know the rest about the British, French and mostly Dutch. Now Jesus. Jesus was 245 years earlier than Santa. Jesus has this huge book about him, the New Testament, and his fame is huge. There's not much historical stuff about Jesus. Mostly legand. Like Santa only more so. So he's bigger than Santa, yes. But actually, that is the parallel I'm going for here. Santa is maybe in that group of the most famous personalities in the world. You got Buddha, Mohamed, and Confucius and pretty soon Santa comes up on the list. He's in the same time era and fame size as many of the big "gods". So both Santa and Jesus are real people, but they're so hugely bigger than life. Because legend and custom have followed them through lots of oral tradition, then somebody got around to writing some of it down. Gee, do you think any of the early story tellers and later writers ever made anything up that was interesting and threw it in? Or took a real character who had great stories told about him, and melded that character in to our Nick or J.C. Would they have done that? This all happened over some 1500 years mind you, before any common man could have access to the legends, other than oral lore. Look... 1500 years is a long time. None of us know exactly how legends of St. Nick or Jesus came about. Let me give the 1500 years a perspective we can identify with. When I was five years old, Davy Crockett was my favorite person. The Disney series was on and I watched every week. Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen. I believed in both Santa Claus and Davy Crockett. I had a children's book, a "Golden Book", about Davy. In the first part of the book there was a part about Davy fixing the world after a deep freeze. It was the great ice age. There was a picture of Davy in his coonskin cap hammering against the "Gears" of the world to get the world moving again. And he did it. He killed a bear when he was three years old. He knew every tree in Tennessee. His father could "lick" any man in Tennesse and he, Davy, could lick his father. He was a US Congressman. So there's a few legends for us. And that's a lowly mortal, not a God!. And it's not 2000 years ago. It's what 180 years ago? And a studied historian would tell us that they don't know what happened exactly at the end of the siege of the Alamo. But if you ask me I know that David Crockett, standing beside Jim Bowie, was one of the last men killed and he was swinging his Kentucky long rifle by the barrel at a horde of Santa Anna's men. It's folly to try to tell me that it could have happened any other way. It's a legend. But it's also a "meme". It exists in the culture. Here's a scenario for you. Maybe the legends about Nick grew and grew into the guy we now have as described by Clement Moore. The legends were just made up. Gosh, I believe in Father Christmas and I wish you wouldn't say he was made up. He's a real, historical person. But apparently in the case of Jesus, the New Testament story is exactly true. It has never been changed even once during the 2000 years it has been told, written, canonized, translated. Even though there are dozens of historical "Saviors" whom, if we read about them, we would find many of the same stories that are attributed to Jesus. That can only be coincidence. The exact record is in the bible and even if the bible contradicts itself, the story of Jesus is not in one iota legend. Wow. Talk about faith and miracles. OK. I'll get to the point. You say Jesus walked on water, turned water into wine, was the son of God. I say Santa can deliver presents to one billion households in 48 hours (he flies with the earths rotation, and his sled can warp into a time machine to keep him in a relativity cloud). And he can transport into any living room through pure magic aided by nano technology. It seems to me we both have an equally viable claim. After all, it's about belief and faith. Now one more thing. It makes more sense to believe in Santa. If you're going to have a subjective "belief" in something, than you can choose the belief. You can believe you're going to be the next Tiger Woods. Ah, bad example. You can believe world hunger will be gone in one year. Or that ice cream will become a perfect health food. You can believe something good and wholesome and happy. Like the reality of Santa Claus. Why by virtue of simple common sense, would you believe in a God like the father of Jesus? He condemns you as a horrible sinner from the day you are born. Due to a Creation error that only he could be responsible for! You need a Savior because of him! He has the power to fix the world and save you. But he does not. I believe in Santa Claus. It's nicer. It's saner. More positive. Healthier mentally. I'm gonna e- mail him right now. I've got a few Christmas wishes. They require miracles. Except for the one material thing I want. It will be easy for S. Claus. It's just a metal detector, Santa please. He has a lovely Elf to help him in my part of his route. Merry Christmas!!! ..... .... LloydLou ITTY :::::+:::::