I spoke with Santa Claus yesterday at the VA Medical Center in Birmingham AL, but it’s a secret! Well, not really if I am telling you. But, let me tell you the story.
I was walking through the halls at the Medical Center, and saw this man who could easily have passed for Santa Claus. He had a beautiful well-kept well-rounded snowy white beard and a full head of snowy white hair. Yes, he had pink cheeks and his eyes twinkled. And, I have no idea how he managed it, but he had a well-rounded belly that did not look like a paunch!
Well, I just had to stop and make a comments. And, guess what! He is Santa Claus. Well, not really, but it turns out that every year for the last six years, he grows out his beard around this time, and at the right time puts on the outfit and becomes Santa Claus. He wanders up and down the Medical Center bringing good cheer to the veterans and their families during a time when they would rather be home instead of in a hospital.
I later found out from one of my co-workers that he is one of about three or four veterans become Santa Claus every year during the Advent and Christmas Seasons. Yes, he himself is a veteran, but gives of himself every year in order to make life a little better for some of his fellow veterans.
I know that we Orthodox want to preserve Advent as a season of fasting, and I totally agree. And, I know that we Orthodox are a little wary about the way in which Santa Claus has developed into a cultural icon divorced from Saint Nicholas. But, this is different. Here is a man who is carrying out the spirit of that original Saint Nicholas. Here is someone who gives of himself every year without expecting anything in return, and all to cheer up some who, at times, desperately need cheering. Yes, this man does carry out the spirit of that original Saint Nicholas.
And so, though it is much too early, let me quote Ebenezer Scrooge’s line to you. “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. … Or, as Tiny Tim would put it, “God bless us, every one!”
Thanks for posting this, Fr. Ernesto. We Catholics also draw some narrow circles of “acceptable culture.” Stories like this make me feel more comfortable in the overlaps. Sure our American culture goes overboard in many ways, but we are at least inspired and founded on mainly Christian principles and we tend to live them even if we don’t intentionally acknowledge them as Christian.