Do you think that Santa, presents and Christmas trees detract from Christmas?

@SAdave1 (103)
South Africa
December 22, 2008 2:28am CST
There is so much hype around at Christmas time about Santa Claus, buying presents, sales, Christmas trees etc. I have heard of some Christians that are no longer even giving Christmas cards because they believe that all the commercial hype is really based on pagan beliefs. I am a Christian and believe that many people lose sight of Jesus at Christmas time, but I don't there is any harm in putting up a Christmas tree and buying friends and family presents as long as you put Jesus first.
2 responses
cathya
@cathya (704)
• Philippines
23 Dec 08
This is very true nowadays but here in my country (Philippines) I would like to believe that we still keep the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ and gift giving and Santa Claus was just part of the celebration. We have the tradition called "Dawn Mass" (Misa de Gallo) a lot of Catholics used to complete the 9 days dawn masses which usually starts at 3am as thanksgiving and sacrifice as well. The Church takes the opportunity to continually tell the people the true meaning of Christmas that its not about the gifts but sharing the love of Christ who came to save us.
SAdave1
@SAdave1 (103)
• South Africa
23 Dec 08
where do you live, Cathy? I am in South Africa. I belong to the Presbyterian Church, so we don't have anything like that, just have a church service on Ch.ristmas day and all the services leading up to Christmas are about the birth of Christ
SViswan
@SViswan (12051)
• India
22 Dec 08
Funny you should menion this point...I was just thinking of the same thing. I'm a kindergarten teacher in India. We just celebrated Christmas at school last week. All the festivals we celebrate, we explain the significance to the kids....but Christmas was all about Santa Claus and gifts and no mention of Jesus Christ was even made.