The Heart of Father Christmas

Jack Hayford shares good words about the spirit of Santa Clause . . .

"The expression 'Father Christmas' is commonly used in Commonwealth Nations of the British empire. That’s how they refer to Santa Claus. Santa Claus goes by many different names in different parts of the world, and he’s often is a point of contention for some people.

As sincere as they may be, there are believers who take an antagonistic attitude toward celebrating Christmas, especially toward Santa Claus. Often times, we’re negatively orientated to things because we’ve never been faced with a living counterpart. The only counterpart we know is a dead thing of the past. If you are a person who grew up believing in Santa Claus but never having any understanding about Father God, then your transformation as a believer may have included accepting the view that says you shouldn’t celebrate Christmas, or that the idea of Santa Claus is evil. There are people who make great issue over the fact that Santa’s name has the same letters as Satan’s and that he wears a red suit, though we don’t have any evidence that Satan wears a red suit.

There are some things that have to do with celebrating Christmas and with Santa Claus that really are soured by carnality in the world, but there’s another side to that. If you were told you shouldn’t celebrate Christmas because it’s an extension of an ancient, pagan holiday, consider this: It’s also an ancient Christian take-over of a pagan holiday. Many of the things we associate with Christmas, like the Yule log and the tree, have to do with things Christians did to sanctify the holiday with a living counterpart. They took the best of what was and reinterpreted it with life."

Read the entire article by Pastor Jack here.