The Church’s relationship with the figure who, more than any other, seems to embody the secular Christmas – Santa Claus – has been ambivalent. For some Christians, the cult of Santa has eclipsed the real focus of the feast, the infant Saviour. Things came to a head in 1951 in France, where the cult was, besides its commercialism, very much associated with the Americanisation of the feast.
As the sociologist Claude Lévi-Strauss described it:
“A number of the clergy had, for several months, expressed disapproval of the increasing importance given by both families and the business sector to the figure of Father Christmas. They denounced a disturbing paganization of the Nativity that was diverting public spirit from the true Christian meaning of Christmas to the profit of a myth devoid of religious value. Attacks spread just before Christmas; with more discretion but just as much conviction, the Protestant Church chimed in with the Catholic Church.”
