And so, it’s Christmas…
And so, it’s Christmas… Grandma, Christmas 1992 When I was young, my grandmother emphatically insisted she still believed in Santa Claus. Just as firmly, I insisted, “Come on, Grandma. That is silly. Everyone knows Santa doesn’t really exist.” Yet, Grandma wouldn’t budge. She insisted there was, in fact, a Santa Claus. Years later, as an adult, I think I finally understood what she meant. I believe my grandmother was referring to what Santa symbolizes, not necessarily the literal ‘person’ of Santa. I have heard some say that Santa has ‘taken over’ the ‘real’ meaning of Christmas (the birth of Christ), but I’m not so sure. While Christmas and Yule have been celebrated for centuries, Santa is only about 200 years old. Before Santa as we know him today, people in England believed in ‘Father Christmas,’ a man who dressed in green and went from home to home to feast with families, although he didn’t bring gifts to children. Didn’t Christ also go from place to place and break b...