I’ll be straight with you. I love Christmas and I’m secretly still sad that Santa does not exist. I have fun memories of putting our biscuits and Bashew cooldrinks(yes, the african way) out for Father Christmas to refuel, after he had sneaked into our house and filled our pillow cases at the foot of our beds with all the presents he miraculously knew we wanted. Father Christmas had to get through the window because we had no chimney:) At least, that’s what my parents told me.
So here I am a couple of decades or so later, with two of my own little squirrels, Kristen and Jesse longing to re-invent this magical world of Father Christmas, his reindeer and the mass of presents he wants to leave them as he goes on his way, getting fatter and fatter as he eats all the biscuits and drinks all the Bashew drinks imaginable. But I know I owe them more than that.
So the point of this blog is to help us parents walk upstream during this season of crazy opulence, over-indulgence and myth around that pot-bellied, jolly old man called Father Christmas, on the eve of St Nicholas’ day, 6 December.
So here enters the real Santa.....St Nicholas. St Nicholas was born in a town called Myra, now known as Turkey in the Mediterranean. He was raised by his Christian family as he lost both his parents at a quite a young age. St Nicholas was driven by the christian values instilled in him at a young age and there are many testimonies of him living a life of servitude, generosity, mercy and justice. One such story and my favorite, is when he secretly placed gold coins through the window of a friends’ daughter who was to be sold into slavery because her father could not afford her dowry. Another story goes that he employed a wood carver to make wooden toys for poor children in his community, and another story goes that he generously fed the poor and clothed them. He eventually became a Bishop and his sainted remains now lie in the Port City of Bari in Italy, which strangely enough I have been to.
St Nicholas was a Jesus follower, a dedicated follower of the Light of the world and his life reflected it. A bit of a far cry from the Coke drinking jolly fellow we now know and love (I speak for myself on this point:)). Which brings me to the following point, the image of St Nicholas has evolved over centuries as different groupings and companies have added little touches here and there as a marketing gimmick. So to the Coca-Cola company’s credit, they are not the only ones guilty of tainting St Nicholas’s image.
So on 6 December this year, I will be celebrating the life of St Nicholas with my family and will attempt to use symbols of St Nicholas’ life, which I hope will help challenge our views of the silly season, and inculcate a message of generosity and not of getting stuff, a message of justice and not of adding to the greater divide between the rich and poor, and a message of mercy and not of being wrapped up in our own bubble as we see the poor all around us. So here are the symbols which will be incorporated into the meal. The aim is to keep the little “gifts” as simple as possible....after all we don’t want to perpetuate the cycle of “stuff” over this time:
- A Sock: represents the sock or shoe into which the gold coins fell when he paid for the young lady’s dowry;
- Chocolate Gold Coins: The money he left in the socks;
- Something Wooden: As a reminder of the gifts the Wood carver made for the poorer children. Maybe fun pencils or little wooden Christmas trimmings will do
- Cloth or clothing: represents the clothes he gave to the poor. In this case I’m thinking new ribbons for Kristen’s hair and a little bandana for Jesse
- Favorite food: This represents his generosity as he sought to feed the poor. I’m thinking of giving Jesse a few strawberries, and Kristen some sweet melon, their favorite fruit.
- Ginger Bread: Symbolises the bread St Nicolas made with exotic spices
So it doesn’t have to cost much. Usually some traditional Mediterranean food is enjoyed as the life of St Nicholas is reflected on.
So what on earth are we to do with Santa this season! For me I’m not ready to give it all up yet. I’ll continue to ask God to challenge me in my thinking and preparation as we await Jesus this advent season, wait for Him to transform our hearts and wait on the same Jesus who affected St Nicholas’ life so deeply. So may the Lord of Love, Generosity, Mercy and Justice walk upstream with us this Christmas season!
Please go to the following link to read a very comprehensive article about the Saint we love so much. I've used Scribd, a site one can upload pdf's for viewing on the net, as I was unable to attach a document to this blog. Hope it works. http://www.scribd.com/doc/74814156/StNicholasDay
I also found the following website really informative
Watch this space for some pictures of our time together and examples of what we used during the evening. Love Mauri:)
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