December 18th, 2011 
PaganDad  |
| Woodland Santa |
We live in a world that is often very unfriendly to Paganism, which is ironic because many of the commonly practiced traditions are typically co-opted from ancient Pagan traditions. Now let me say that I am not saying that any of our religious systems go back much further then the 1950′s with only a few possible exceptions. Rather what I am saying is that Christianity took many of the traditions from the “Pagans” of their time and made them their own.
This article comes out of a question posed on Facebook Page the other day. This questions was pretty much about the confusion between Christmas and Yule. Mainly because she had decided to not include Santa in her holiday tradition. The reason being because he says Merry Christmas. I can understand this even though we include Santa in our traditions.
My household is a multi-faith one, in a sense. My oldest daughter, from my first marriage, is being raised Christian and of course her mother has no issue with Santa, so if I had made the decision to cut out Santa then there would be some confused children. But how does one, if they make this decision, reconcile Santa’s very Christian image with one’s own Pagan traditions?
Where He Comes From?
One of the Gods that Santa bears the most striking resemblance to is Odin and his eight legged horse Sleipnir. Many traditions had him leading a night time hunt around this time of the year. And in other traditions children would leave out their boots, filled with carrots or straw or sugar (all for Sleipnir). In exchange for this kindness Papa Odin would leave gifts for the children.
While not necessarily a God, their is an archetype from modern Paganism that Santa bears a similarity to as well, the Holly King. Dressed in a long flowing robe, sometimes red, and surrounded by the animals of the forest he was the God of the Dark Half of the year. Rising to power between Litha and Lughnasadh (depending on your tradition) and leaving us at Yule. Replaced by the Oak/Sun King.
So as you can see, as the song says Santa Claus is Pagan Too. But this doesn’t really answer the question. Santa is still portrayed as Christian and still is all about Christmas, so what is a Pagan to do? Well either teach and portray him as really Pagan, telling the truth of where he comes from. Or skip him entirely and replace him with the Holly King or Odin, if you lend more towards the Norse/Germanic side of things.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this one. Santa or No?
And oh yeah the picture was found on Flikr, check out the other photos.
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Thanks for chiming in. If you check out my story, and I forgot to include this, I have the Holly King giving gifts for how he treated his mother and to make up for Wintertime.
That's always an option.
There is nothing Christian about Santa. I mean, I did not read anything about him in the bible. He's more a symbol of folk believe, so why not include him in Pagan holiday celebrations?
Years ago, when my children were young, I established a different take on all this. Naturally we celebrated Solstice (with presents and feast etc) and did our best to ignore Xmas.
Most people think of 'Santa' as a supernatural being or a deity. My approach was quite different. I replaced 'Santa' with the 'Solstice Shaman'. This person was understood by the children as being one of the adults of the household, but taking on a special shamanic / priestly role, as appropriate for the season. Prior to solstice (before sunset, on Solstice eve) everyone went off to find a 'special' stone and then tell that stone about the year that had gone – in other words, to 'give away' the old year, the pleasant as well as the unpleasant bits. At night on Solstice eve, the Solstice Shaman took away the stones (children put them in stockings and went to sleep – adults had a bit more ritual, meditation etc.) The Solstice Shaman went outside into the dark (no torch permitted) and the stones were given to the Spirits (howsoever the Solstice Shaman might choose, and howsoever these might be understood to have Being). So far, the Solstice Shaman has always brought back a blessing for the coming year. For the adults, this tends to take the form of a crystal pressed into the third eye (ice /snow is crystalline of course, and non-injurious). For the kids, token presents (more later) were put into the stockings (keep them quiet an hour in the morning hopefully!)
In the morning we would light the solstice fire and greet the new year's first dawn. The usual indulgence would follow.
We even published all this in 'Mother Earth's Winter Solstice Colouring Book' (which I plan to make available again on the net soon) as part of our then 'Pagan Parenting Network'. Kids now adults themselves, adult relationships moved on, but I still keep this tradition with my household. Seems to me wholly in keeping with the 'real meaning' of Solstice, psychologically meaningful without psychobabble, readily comprehensible to non-bigoted nonPagans, devoid of adults-only mysticism, etc.
I don't know whether any purchasers of the book adopted the tradition also – would be nice if they did – and I offer it to the new generation also.
In our family we celebrate the traditional Christmas with Santa as the media has made him, but we also celebrate the Winter Solstice.
When my kids were young I explained the Solstice as the baby sun born of the Mother Goddess who brings light to the Earth and saves us from the darkness of never ending winter.
This year as my kids are now 8 and 10, I have begun to teach them the correlation with the story of Jesus. I explained that Jesus is simply another Winter Solstice myth. The story of a God that was born of the Goddess to save the world from darkness of the spirit, and that he was born of a god, in the same way that the baby sun is born of the Summer god.
I explain that there was the man Jesus who taught many good things about the Goddess's ways and that by studying what he taught we can learn to be better people. And then there is the myth about Jesus that men made up hundreds of years after his death. And that myth bears a striking resemblance to the myth of Mithras, an important Roman deity of the time after Jesus lived. Mithras also was born of a virgin, died on a cross, and was resurrected.
So, by teaching by kids about Jesus and Mary as another Winter Solstice myth, they can celebrate them as yet another of our pagan God and Goddesses. And then Christmas is not something to avoid, but to celebrate!
And the songs can be meaningful to the kids. I especially like O little town of Bethlehem, that teaches that God comes into our hearts to live.
What makes us pagan is that we embrace God in all His/Her forms, so why should we dismiss the one form that is currently most prevalent in our American Society? As long as we help the children avoid the pitfalls of Christianity such as that they think their way is the only way, and that man has original sin, and that there is a hell.
I've got to agree, Santa doesn't seem particularly Christian to me. In fact, some of the more fundamentalist protestants seem to abhor Santa because he's so pagan. Sure, Santa says "Merry Christmas" in many stories but he's not exactly spreading the Good News. It was recently reported that Richard Dawkins loves to celebrate Christmas, and he's definitely not Christian. So, to me, that's not the sticking point.
The question for our family is how we relate to and understand mythical beings. On the one hand, Santa is fun, and a good story. On the other hand, the very way we define "real" vs. "imaginary" in our culture seems a little messed up to me. It doesn't leave room for myth and other ways of being that are, perhaps, somewhere in between, or something else entirely. I'm still thinking through this.
I like Rufus' Solstice Shaman concept. I think with a little tweaking we could say that everyone can be Santa at some point. A seasonal spirit representing generosity, warmth, love, and the hope for abundance.
My recent post Why Solstice Matters
I love this concept. Thanks for sharing!
Mary is called Queen of the Stars a name she shares with Isis.
Thanks for fixing my link.
That's because fundamentalists stick very closely to the bible, and it's true: you won't find Santa mentioned in the bible. But it's easy for Catholics to explain Santa to their children, as they believe Santa Clause is a modern variant of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children, who was the bishop of Myra in the year 300 A.C., who went to the Netherlands on a steamboat. Upon arrival, he became famous in that part of Europe, visiting schools and the poor, and was known for secretly putting money and sweets in shoes left out by children. There he was known as Sint Nikolaas, or Sinterklaas. Hundreds of years later, the Dutch who emigrated to North America and founded New Amsterdam (modern day New York) brought this tradition with them. Time and publicity morphed the dutch Sinterklaas into the modern, Coca Cola version of Santa Claus we know today.