German Catholics want Santa-free Christmas

Source: Reuters

A group of German Catholics wants to do away with Santa Claus because of the fictional figure's commercial hype and replace him with St Nicolas and the selfless giving they say he represents.

Even before shops fill with Santa-themed goodies, the Bonifatiuswerk of German Catholics -- a Catholic aid organisation -- has begun calling for "Santa Claus-free zones."

The organisation sees Santa as "an invention of the advertising industry designed to boost sales" and as "a representative of consumer society" who has little to do with the historical figure of St Nicolas.

Its website describes Nicolas, the patron saint of children, as "a helper in need who reminds us to be kind, to think of our neighbours, and to give the gift of happiness."

Read more: http://af.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idAFTRE6951K220101006

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That's the crux of the holiday season, right there.

Thuympety-thuymp-thump / Look at Frosty go!

Wanna bet that this is on O'Lielly shortly - "Secular progressive socialists, just like their counterparts here in the United States, declared war on Christmas today by trying to get Santa Claus banned". This will be followed by outrage and pouting from Fux's Three Little Stooges morning show.

an advertising industry existed.

Oh, no's! Will St. Valentine be next?

How about Jesus? Lord only knows how much Jesus stuff is sold--and all those Christas and Easter cards and stamps, too.

That's like saying the advertising industry invented mothers and fathers, because folks figured out ways to make money on Mothers' Day and Father's Day.

n/t

go team

It's only October ferchrissakes.

;-)

with all the talk of witches and dabbling and all...you'd think

I am on their email lists and now they are complaining about businesses who do not have merchandise out on the shelves yet (late Sept, Early Oct) as not respecting Christmas and hence they are being persecuted. :crazy: .

"The organisation sees Santa as 'an invention of the advertising industry designed to boost sales' and as 'a representative of consumer society' who has little to do with the historical figure of St Nicolas." --from the OP

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"It is said that in Myra the relics of Saint Nicholas each year exuded a clear watery liquid which smells like rose water, called manna (or myrrh), which is believed by the faithful to possess miraculous powers. After the relics were brought to Bari, they continued to do so, much to the joy of the new owners. Even up to the present day, a flask of manna is extracted from the tomb of Saint Nicholas every year on 6 December (the Saint's feast day) by the clergy of the basilica. The myrrh is collected from a sarcophagus which is located in the basilica vault and could (be) obtained in the shop nearby."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

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You really need to read the profitable nonsense that has been concocted around St. Nicholas to fully appreciate the irony of St. Nicholas-promoters dissing Santa Claus as "consumerist."

I certainly approve of selfless giving--and I think that there is no question that our corporate-driven consumer society has gone off-the-charts whacko and is literally killing Planet Earth, not to mention exploiting and impoverishing most of humanity--but the promotion of 10th Century "saints" who are little more than fables themselves, and whose "relics" were carted around as war trophies, and whose exudations as corpses were SOLD for PROFIT, will NOT solve our problems, will not replace consumerism with selfless giving, will not "save" Christmas (a fundamentally Pagan holiday that the Church merely appropriated), will not expunge the gift giving impulse (with its often mixed motives) from human hearts, will not cleanse us of our fancy for trinkets and pretty giftwrap paper and ribbons, will not soberize and puritanize our celebrations, and will do nothing to get us out of the pickle we are in, as a species. That will require our throwing off the Corporate Rulers who use EVERYTHING--religion, sex, cute babies, Christmas, fear, patriotism, war, greed--to accumulate ungodly profits, wealth and power.

I actually think that the "Santa Claus" impulse is a good one. For a lot of people, it's the only time of year that they think of others--and if their only thought of others is what to buy for them at Christmas, well, yeah, that's kind of pathetic, but it's SOMETHING. To attack "Santa Claus" is rather aggressive--especially in view of the history of the Church's use of "saints" for political and profit purposes, and their outrageous lies about them. Why not just gently go among the shoppers and give them a sweet little Christmas card that says, "Please give 10% of what you intend to spend today directly to a homeless person"? Something like that. And smile and sing a Christmas carol. Be gentle, like Jesus. No media attack. No trying to make harried people frantically trying to buy gifts for friends and family FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT. No throwing cold water on a children's fairy tale. Praise the shoppers! Maybe give them something--a cup of cocoa, a cookie, to ease them on their way. "Santa Free Zones" is POLITICAL and kind of mean.

with cocaine

That's why I add holy water to the Milk I put out with the cookies.

Whatever happened to just ignoring it and doing your own thing?

It actually takes an informed opinion to be able to intellectually ignore it, which is not a bad approach for oneself. But children are quite impressionable. And not many parents will take the time to explain the real meaning of Santa Claus and Christmas.

They are asking that shops don't use Santa Claus to sell things. That's not "fascist". Is it "fascist" to ask people to no vote Republican?

And a lot of businesses make most of their sales during the christmas holidays. If they don't like the marketing ploy they should just shop elsewhere.

No, it's not fascist to ask people to vote republican, but your comparison has nothing to do with the article.

You're devaluing the language by misusing 'fascist' here. Save it for when someone it trying to force someone else to do something.

The point is these people are asking people not to do something, not banning.

I still believe in Santa Claus/St. Nicholas. Sure, the parents put the presents under the tree, but why? If a saint answers children's prayers, how else is it going to happen?

I'm not too upset by the entire North Pole, elves and Mrs. Santa Claus bit. What upsets me is the notion that presents are given or denied based on the child's behavior. A present is freely given with no strings attached, not earned or meant as a bribe. We adults would enjoy the holidays more if we kept that in mind.

small gift in one hand and a bunch of sticks in the other(or a lump of coal)for the bad kids.

Good move on Germany's part to go along. Just a minor return to the traditional past over there.

We could easily restrict santa to one per store...better for the little tykes.

Our oldest child (now 18) has a Dec. 6 birthday so we made it a tradition to put up the decorations after her birthday each year. When the kids were smaller we put out more cutesy things, but we have really scaled back (part of that is due to a major family event/tragedy happening during the past four years in late Nov-early Dec). We scaled xmas way back financially out of necessity, too. I choose to not go to shopping centers if at all possible during that time...having worked retail for years, it burned me out to the holiday so it's easier to not be tempted.

Quite honestly we have more halloween decorations than christmas, but that's because we love the macabre. ;)

the most stuff of anyone in the neighborhood were the ones that did all the bad stuff. Then to find out it was all a lie, well that was a bit to much. I was a very good kid.

The Germans celebrate St. Nicolas on Dec 6th. It's a national holiday.
And when there is a holiday in Germany, everything is closed! Except for a handful of restaurants and gas stations along the autobahn or the main train station in town, NOTHING IS OPEN.
Same with Sundays. At least Germans celebrate 'family day' properly. They go for walks, they cook, they take bike rides and do not allow 'work' or noise on Sundays. It's the most family friendly country I've seen yet.
There's a lot to be learned from that socialist country.

the kids still stick their shoes by their door and we throw in their favorite chocolates (they especially love their chocolate oranges!).

And one of the things they told their relatives coming over is that everything tends to closed in the US on Sundays. Could be that it was NOT true of the inner cities of Germany of that time period, but has become the norm since then, or may be the relative in the US was just reporting it was the same in the Rural USA as in Germany (The letters were from Farmers to farmer relatives, the US had more people in Rural Areas then Urban Areas till the 1920 Census).

to beat the kids who don't adequately shine their shoes. German christmas is FUN!

I'll have to find it but at one point Christmas was banned.

Catholics and Lutherans (and Orthodox) always celebrated it (Through the Church of England did not).

In many ways, Thanksgiving was invented to replace the traditional English Christmas feast among New England Puritans.

Furthermore we do NOT know the extent of the abolishment, for the people who could read and write supported the abolishment of Christmas in England and Colonial America in the 1600 and 1700s, but we have some reports that it did NOT go down to the working class. For example Franklin's Poor Richards Almanac had a saying in regards to the end of December that (paraphrase) "for employers to keep their workers celebrations that time of year to a minimum". What did he mean by that? Was the poor and working class still celebranting Christmas? There are other hints of the continued celebration but among the poor and working class only.

The Germans in Pennsylvania of Franklin's time were know to celebrate Christmas despite the fine for doing so, thus how much did the ban actually work? Did the working class still celebrate it, but under cover of denial? Most such working class people could not read and write (That would take the invention, in 1801, and the widespread adoption, around 1840, of pulp paper, linen paper was to expensive for the working class to buy and use, thus minimal reading and writing from that class prior to the 1840s).

In many ways the advent of working class reading and writing (in the 1830s and 1840w) may have resulted in the return of Christmas to the English Speaking world more then Queen Victoria's German husband bringing it with him when he married her (Dickens "A Christmas Carol" also had a play it the revival). We may never know for the records were just not kept, but a push occurred in the early 1800s (after the defeat of Napoleon) to revive Christmas in the English Speaking world, and the push was more then from Victoria's husband bringing it with him when he married Victoria.

http://alturl.com/qxmzn

Other Articles from the cite on the subject:
http://www.weihnachtsmannfreie-zone.de/index.php?id=fuersprecher


Other Articles, on the subject (In German), this is from the pro and con page of the organization:
http://www.derwesten.de/nachrichten/panorama/Weihnachtsmann-verfuehrt-nur-zum-Kaufen-id1029649.html

Other news article from the group:

Home page:
http://www.weihnachtsmannfreie-zone.de /

Home page of the Organization in question (This is in English, but looks like a computer translation):
http://www.bonifatiuswerk.de/index.php?id=277

Here is a Computer Translation of the actual News Release, one thing I did notice on reading the computer translation is the Concentration on St Nicholas Day (December 6), which is the traditional German day to exchange small gifts as oppose to Christmas day itself:

The presence of the Weihnachtsmanns keeps growing every year Einzug in our social life. Also gives the impression that the Christian Feast of Saint Nicholas of Myra increasingly in the background. The common concerns, the holy Nikolaus conscious of the people to keep it applies to work together, said Daniel Könen spokesman of the BDKJ (Cologne) and Alfred Herrmann (Press officer of the Bonifatiuswerkes).

Die Präsenz des Weihnachtsmanns hält Jahr für Jahr immer größeren Einzug in unser gesellschaftliches Leben. Zugleich entsteht der Eindruck, dass das christliche Fest des heiligen Nikolaus von Myra zunehmend in den Hintergrund gedrängt wird. In dem gemeinsamen Anliegen, den heiligen Nikolaus im Bewusstsein der Menschen zu bewahren, gelte es daher, an einem Strang zu ziehen, betonten Daniel Könen (Pressesprecher des BDKJ Köln) und Alfred Herrmann (Pressereferent des Bonifatiuswerkes).

In particular against the (pre-)Weihnachtszeit as a pure time of consumption, the BDKJ Cologne with the already the third time held the action "Nikolaus come into our house" a signal. Because the federation, one of the largest youth Cologne, girls and boys critical judgment and independent action from a Christian responsibility empower and encourage.

Insbesondere gegen die (Vor-)Weihnachtszeit als eine reine Zeit des Konsums möchte der BDKJ Köln mit der bereits zum dritten Mal stattfinden den Aktion "Nikolaus komm in unser Haus" ein Zeichen setzen. Denn der Verband, der einer der größten Jugendverbände Kölns ist, will Mädchen und Jungen zu kritischem Urteil und eigenständigem Handeln aus christlicher Verantwortung heraus befähigen und anregen.

The Bonifatiuswerk turns with the nationwide action "Weihnachtsmannfreie Zone" with a wink also against the figure of the Weihnachtsmanns, like no other Konsumweihnacht stands for. The Diaspora agency would like to its already 2002 incurred action the holy Nicholas as a friend of children and helpers of people in distress again in the spotlight.

Das Bonifatiuswerk wendet sich mit der bundesweiten Aktion „Weihnachtsmannfreie Zone“ mit einem Augenzwinkern ebenfalls gegen die Figur des Weihnachtsmanns, der wie kein anderer für die Konsumweihnacht steht. Das Diaspora-Hilfswerk möchte mit seiner bereits 2002 entstandenen Aktion den heiligen Nikolaus als Freund der Kinder und Helfer von Menschen in Not wieder in den Mittelpunkt rücken. Denn er verweist im Gegensatz zum Weihnachtsmann auf Werte wie Uneigennützigkeit, Nächstenliebe und selbstloses Handeln. Durch die Kooperation mit dem BDKJ Köln sollen mit dieser Nachricht auch verstärkt Kinder und Jugendliche erreicht werden.

Under the Diaspora www.weihnachtsmannfreie-zone.de agency a focal point for all ready for the Nikolaus involved. It offers stickers, posters and postcards to action. A guidance contains both Background information to live and work of the holy Nikolaus as well as narratives, songs and practical suggestions for groups and families.

Unter www.weihnachtsmannfreie-zone.de stellt das Diaspora-Hilfswerk einen Anlaufpunkt für alle bereit, die sich für den Nikolaus engagieren. Es bietet Aufkleber, Plakate sowie Postkarten zur Aktion an. Eine Arbeitshilfe enthält sowohl Hintergrund-Informationen zum Leben und Wirken des heiligen Nikolaus als auch Erzählungen, Lieder und praktische Anregungen für Gruppen und Familien. Auf einer eigenen Nikolaus-CD sowie in einem Werkbuch „Nikolaus, komm in unser Haus“ lernen Kinder in Liedern und Geschichten den heiligen Bischof von Myra näher kennen.

The focus of this year's cooperation between the BDKJ Cologne and the Bonifatiuswerk are the sale of fair-traded chocolate Nikoläusen and a shared out gebrachtes Nikolaus Themenheft with tips for group lessons and Familienabende to 6. December. The issue, which the prestigious Prof. Dr. Manfred Becker Huberti mitgeschrieben, cost 1,00 Euro.

Im Mittelpunkt der diesjährigen Kooperation zwischen dem BDKJ Köln und dem Bonifatiuswerk stehen der Verkauf von fair-gehandelten Schokoladen-Nikoläusen und ein gemeinsam heraus gebrachtes Nikolaus-Themenheft mit Tipps für Gruppenstunden und die Familienabende um den 6. Dezember. Das Heft, an dem auch der renomierte Prof. Dr. Manfred Becker Huberti mitgeschrieben hat, kostet 1,00 Euro.

(kk)

Federation of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ) Cologne BDKJ is the umbrella organization of seven catholic children and youth associations in the city of Cologne. Of these are some 8,000 children and young people aged between 7 and 28 years organized. www.bdkj-koeln.de on all products can be ordered. It also provides a Nikolausrätsel to participate.


Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend (BDKJ) Köln
Der BDKJ ist der Dachverband von sieben katholischen Kinder- und Jugendverbänden in der Stadt Köln. Über diese sind rund 8.000 Kinder und Jugendliche im Alter zwischen 7 und 28 Jahren organisiert. Auf www.bdkj-koeln.de können alle Produkte bestellt werden. Außerdem findet man hier auch ein Nikolausrätsel zum Mitmachen.