The infamous "Santa VS. Jesus" chain letter is full of sayings that tell you things like: "Santa lets you sit on his lap, but Jesus holds you in his arms." It is a collection of cheesy phrases containing reasons why Jesus is better than Santa, a thinly disguised paranoid pseudo-religious rant that contains undertones of the all too typical "Christianity is being threatened! Save it by passing on this chain letter that reminds people why Jesus is better than Santa!" It's a one-upmanship game that Jesus and both the historical St. Nicholas and Santa Claus as we know him today would strongly discourage.
The Jesus Vs. Santa chain is posted on Kevin Murrell's blog Becca's blog Kathy's blog and many others.
Unfortunately, it and so many others just like it, have given anti-theists more opportunity and excuse to lulz, and this kind of crap is absolutely all the rage and encouraged on that cyber stink pit known as the Snopes message board.
Santa Claus is not a rival to Jesus, and he is not kicking Christ out of Christmas! In fact, Santa Claus comes from ST. Nicholas, who was a Christian bishop in Turkey in the 4th century. He gave extensively to the poor out of compassion, and love for Jesus Christ. With this in mind, it's time to mangle another meme.
😄Meme: Why Jesus is better than Santa Claus
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Jesus is the Savior. Santa is a legend that grew out of the inspiring life of St. Nicholas, who helped out the poor, in Christ's name.
😄Meme: Santa lives in the North Pole ñ JESUS is everywhere.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Santa as we know him now, lives everywhere within the hearts of people who cherish him. The historical figure who inspired him was ST. Nicholas, who lived in Turkey in the 4th century, and Christmas is a celebration of Jesus's birth in Bethlehem.
😄Meme: Santa rides in a sleigh ñ JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Jesus is and was a miracle worker. Santa is only a legend based on a saint. Even so, basing who is better on transportation? There are people who can't drive or can't even walk. Does that make them any less than those who can? Well, that is what this meme implies.
😄Meme: Santa comes but once a year ñ JESUS is an ever present help.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Yes, but that help doesn't always come when people want or expect it, and not necessarily in the form they expect. It isn't as if Jesus's help can even be compared with Santa's gift-giving anyway, no matter how many times a year either of them dole it out. Also, Jesus has been known to give help through the use of Santa. Beginning with St. Nicholas, and now it's people including Christians playing Santa to put a little happiness into the lives of others, and Santa's association with charities, including Christian charities helping people in need.
On the Snopes board, some anti-Christian food-cop posted about how if Jesus was everywhere around the world all the time, more than Santa going around the world in a sleigh one night a year, then Jesus must be super super fatter than santa. *Rolling eyes* Trollish moron, but typical Snopester.
😄Meme: Santa fills your stockings with goodies ñ JESUS supplies all your needs.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Yes, but Jesus gave us the means and desire to give those goodies, and the gratefulness to receive them when they are given. Santa represents this loving side of human nature, and he comes from ST. Nicholas, who did his best to serve Jesus in the mission of providing for the needs of the people, and in Christ's name.
😄Meme: Santa comes down your chimney uninvited.JESUS stands at your door and knocks and then enters your heart.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: You are right about Jesus, but you really missed the boat on Santa yet again. Santa doesn't come "uninvited" A thief in the night comes uninvited. Bad weather comes uninvited. Party crashers are uninvited. The person who drops in, interupting something you were in the middle of, and furthermore, it was a person you didn't care to see, is uninvited. Santa is not "uninvited", he is EXPECTED to come down the chimney with gifts, and if he doesn't (dare I say it?) Some kiddies would get terribly disappointed.
😄Meme: You have to wait in line to see SantaJESUS is as close as the mention of His name.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: When Jesus walked the earth as a human being, in the flesh, crowds thronged about and stood in line and pressed in from all sides, to listen to his teachings, and/or wait for a chance to have Jesus heal them or their loved ones of their afflictions.
Santa is also as close as a thought, because he is a legend, and the only way to give him life is to imagine him, and he's there in your head.
But Santa is not your Savior, he is not God. So, I pray to God, in Jesus's name, but any daydreams I may have about Santa do not detract from that.
😄Meme: Santa lets you sit on his lap ñ JESUS lets you rest in his arms.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: When I was a child, I was small enough to rest in Santa's arms. That would probably still be possible if Santa had a big enough chair that could fit the two of us and it had arm rests to keep him from getting tired, but that isn't really the point.
You are comparing physical rest with spiritual rest and that just doesn't work here.
😄Meme: Santa doesn't know your name, all he can say is ìHi little boy or girl, what's your name?î.JESUS knew our name before we did. Not only does he know our address too. He knows our history and future and He even knows how many hairs are on our heads.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: You are of course, right about Jesus, but wrong about Santa again.
When I was a child, I remember Santa calling me by name at Christmas parties. Yes, I know, he was only some man dressed up in costume. That doesn't matter. He was not there to horn in and steal Jesus's thunder.
Now, in my adult wistful daydreams about Santa, he knows my name. You can daydream about any fictional character and have them know your name.
Santa knows the names of other characters in various stories he is in.
Of course, the real ST. Nicholas didn't know yours or my name, but he wasn't Jesus, either. That doesn't mean he wasn't good or that Santa is somehow bad or deserving of banishing over some paranoid belief that he's stealing Christmas.
😄Meme: Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly ñJESUS has a heart full of love.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Since when are the heart and the belly mutually exclusive? So you think Santa can't have a heart full of love because he's got a belly like a bowl full of jelly? What does that say about anyone else who has a Santa-like figure? Are they incapable of loving hearts? Of course not! And what good would Santa be if he gave without love? None.
ST. Nicholas of the 4th century, giving to the poor in Christ's name did not inspire a mere robot dispensing toys on Christmas Eve.
Have you not seen Santa in real life costume or on TV specials, comforting crying children? I have. A Frosty the Snowman classic comes to mind.
😄Meme: All Santa can offer is HO HO HO - JESUS offers health, help and hope.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Actually, Jesus and Santa work together in this. I refer you to St. Nicholas again, and also to all Christian charities that play Santa or use Santa imagery during the Christmas season.
Also, Santa leaves you more than just "ho ho ho" under the tree and in your stocking, unless you're a meme originator, then I don't know what you'd get from Santa.
The point is, Santa is not excluding Jesus, who sometimes works through him to help give people hope, help, and health.
😄Meme: Santa says ìyou better not cryî ñ JESUS says ìCast all your cares on me for I care for you.î
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Correct about Jesus, not quite on Santa. "You better not cry" comes from a song about Santa, not a song from/by Santa. It is a part of the legend I have had problems with ever since finding out what most children who have believed in the literal idea of Santa coming down the chimney eventually must realize. But Jesus has guidelines too, for behavior, and not just for little kids.
And again, both Jesus and Santa in all his forms, care, really, and won't strike you down as naughty for having a good cry. And, a lot depends on who's crying and why. The song does not address this.
😄Meme: Santa's little helpers make toys..JESUS makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Jesus is not an elf. He is a miracle worker, and my Savior, so naturally, he can do a lot more in the real world than any fictional elf, or than any other real person made of flesh and blood for that matter. There simply is no comparison.
😄Meme: Santa may make you chuckle but..JESUS gives you joy! That is your strength.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Santa's mission is all about joy. From St. Nicholas's relieving of unfortunate people's circumstances to the best he could, to people living today who give gifts or even a kind word to increase another's happiness, even if only for a while.
😄Meme: While Santa puts gifts under your tree ñ JESUS became our gift and died on the tree.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Common knowledge among Christians about Jesus. But no one else ever has or ever will be expected to make such a sacrifice again. Everyone has a purpose, and you shouldn't even try comparing Santa with Jesus based on this criteria. It is as unreasonable as contrasting yourself or me to Jesus because he died on a cross and you and I have not.
Santa's mission is simply to help make the world a better place, and help us remember and celebrate Christmas. Santa is meant to represent the good in humanity and what makes a fine example of Christian spirit at Christmas as well as through the rest of the year. I once again refer to ST. Nicholas.
Easter is the time we remember Jesus's death and rising again. But without Jesus's birth (Christmas) there would be no death and resurrection (Easter.)
So don't try using this idea to knock Santa in some silly one-upmanship game that neither Jesus nor Santa or ST. Nicholas would approve of.
😄Meme: It's obvious there is really no comparison.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Well, it was silly of you to try it in the first place.
😄Meme: We need to remember WHO Christmas is all about. We need to put Christ back in Christmas; Jesus is still the reason for the season.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Don't assume "we" or I have forgotten what and who Christmas is all about. Just because I put out Santa ornaments, watch Christmas shows with Santa in them, and play songs that are about Santa does not stop me doing likewise concerning Jesus and the Nativity. Just because I have wistful daydreams about visiting Santa at the North Pole and I wish the man who comes down the chimney was real though I know he wasn't and will never be, does not mean I don't wonder what it was really like where and when Jesus was born, or that I stop praying and doing things in Jesus's name. If I could time-travel back and meet anyone throughout history, my first choice would be to see Jesus as a newborn in that manger, and Mary and Joseph. Second would be to see him as an adult, but not at the time of his crucifixion!
As a musician, I play "Rudolph" at work. I also play "What Child Is This" at work. I have not x-ed Christ out of Christmas, neither has Santa, neither did St. Nicholas.
😄Meme: Yes, Jesus is better, even better than Santa Claus.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Listen, Santa is not trying to steal Jesus's thunder, and Jesus isn't stealing his. There is room in Jesus's heart for ST. Nicholas, there is room in Jesus's heart for all of humanity, including a man and a bunch of elves who fly around and bring toys every Christmas eve, if such beings actually existed, there is room in Christmas for everyone, whether they are saints, shepherds, store managers, grinches, scrooges, shoppers, athleets, musicians, even Santa, elves and reindeer.
😄Meme: Merry CHRISTmas!!!!!!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Don't shout.
Merry Christmas, and remember not to let chain letters dampen your spirits by telling you that Christmas is going extinct and that Christ is being kicked out of the holiday. It simply isn't true - unless you allow it to be by spreading this chain letter and/or being politically correct.
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Adding to the Santa VS. Jesus, Holiday trees hoax and the rest of this rotten promotion of the "War on Christmas" hysteria are the faux Jesus chain letters! These are irredeemably awful pieces of writing, supposedly from Jesus's point of view, deliberately designed to target Christians into a meme-spreading frenzy to save Christmas.
One made Jesus out to look like the most whiny, self-pitying little puke, the other, an anti-chain to the first, made him out as an arrogant jerk, spouting the "holiday trees" hoax. both pretenders fixated on one-upping Santa and having him drummed out of Christmas, in the belief that he's somehow replacing Jesus altogether for Christians. Mr. Selfpity just simpered all the way through his chain about how nobody paid any attention to him or gave him hugs and gifts. Mr. Arrogance was started in reaction to the other War On Christmas memes, on the one hand, telling people to stop worrying, yet at the same time, continuing to spread the Holiday Trees and anti-Santa hysteria.
Over and out!
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