Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Irish-American Witchcraft: Embracing a Modern Santa

Irish-American Witchcraft: Embracing a Modern Santa

Last updated on: December 21, 2017 at 8:08 pm by Morgan Daimler

Irish-American Witchcraft: Embracing a Modern Santa 2017-12-21T20:08:27+00:00 Morgan Daimler

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The winter solstice holiday is upon us, with its focus on the return of the sun’s light, lengthening days, hope for warmth (eventually), and for some pagans the birth/rebirth of a deity. In my family we have our own celebrations and traditions, which include offering to our house spirits and ritually acknowledging the winter sun as Grian. But we also acknowledge Santa; not the historic one but the modern pop-culture version with his Coca-Cola inspired red suit, jolly demeanor, and Rubenesque figure. For my children I think Santa is the centerpiece of the holiday, outweighing even the fun of the Yule log or baking a cake for the spirits and Grian.

“Santa on the Roof” by F. O. C. Darley. Public Domain Image.

Despite the importance my own family places on Santa I’m always surprised every year as we approach the holidays and I start to see a flurry of anti-Santa sentiment from other pagans. It’s not that everyone is anti-Santa but there’s certainly a contingent that advocates ditching Santa as too rooted in Christianity, or conversely ditching Santa in favor of pagan Gods who may represent older versions of the modern holiday spirit (Odin I’m looking at you). I can understand that I suppose since for many people Santa is inextricable tangled up in a wider culture that is predominantly Christian and he is, ultimately, tied to a Christian holiday today. However for me Santa as he is today has become something more than whatever he began as.

Secular Santa

I may have a different view on this because my own childhood wasn’t a religious one. I think I was in 9 or 10 before I figured out that Christmas was supposed to be celebrating the birthday of Jesus, and I’m not sure at that point I understood who – or what – Jesus was. Growing up, Christmas was the day when Santa came and brought gifts, and the holiday centered on leaving out cookies and milk for him and carrots for his reindeer. My family did have traditions including watching certain movies like A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street, and A White Christmas and eating very specific meals. But there was no religious message or service to attend.

For me the ritual of the holiday was entirely based on leaving out offerings to Santa and hoping to pass that supernatural measure of goodness that would assure presents under the tree. Later on I came to see that ‘goodness’ more as an embodied spirit that I myself could have, to help others and be kind at a time of year when people may need it more than usual, and the rewards became less tangible, less about physical gifts and more about spreading that good feeling, that light and cheer of the season.

“Santa Claus in Japan” from WikiMedia. Public Domain Image.

Popculture Santa

Raising my children pagan I’ve tried to give them holidays that are both fun for them and also meaningful, and in most ways I haven’t worried about whether they stayed connected to the mainstream view of the closest secular holiday or not. In some cases we compromise, like celebrating both Halloween and Samhain together. But when it comes to the winter solstice, the twelve days of Yule, Santa was incorporated right in along with Grian and Frau Holle. We’ve never worried about making Santa pagan though, rather we’ve focused on the modern iteration of Santa, the secular one. The one born from Clement Clark Moore’s poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas‘.

Our Santa is the one who has been shaped by modern belief and popculture and who exists across chasms of belief as a shared icon of American culture. In short, our Santa is the egregore that has been built over the last hundred years and is fed today by everyone who still believes in him – by all the kids who watch NORAD to see the Santa tracker, everyone who writes a list to Santa hoping they will get even one thing they are asking for, and everyone who searches the sky looking for a flying reindeer pulled sleigh.

The Spirit of Santa

Santa Figurine via Pexels. CC0 License.

Santa is a spirit with many guises and many names. Some of those guises and names are definitely rooted in pagan spirits and Gods, but some are modern beings created by mass belief. This modern Santa is just as real, and for many children just as important. Even as an adult I still find power in Santa’s message. People who are stingy, mean, and cold-hearted are punished in some way, while the generous, kind, and good hearted are rewarded. Santa is treated like other spirits: usually offerings are made, either to Santa directly or of food to his reindeer. In return Santa brings gifts and spreads holiday spirit, a feeling of generosity and joy that can live in all our hearts.

Santa is the spirit of the season: he is the joy of the lights and the decorated tree, the warm feeling of giving and receiving, the magic of believing in the goodness of people. As long as any of us believe in Santa he will exist. As long as we believe that it is possible for people to give without looking for reward he will exist. As long as there is some part of us that still feels joy at seeing lights dancing in the darkness, and the hope that is promised by a new year, he will exist. I cannot imagine a world without Santa, and I believe our world would be a poorer place without his yearly visit.

We do acknowledge the pagan roots of Santa, and also the Christian influence on his mythology. But for my family Santa is more than just the sum of his mythology, he is a modern spirit that has been woven together from diverse beliefs and exists now as an individual being. He is as real and alive in this current incarnation as any other spirit and is both a uniquely American spirit as well as a global one. And so this year, like every previous one, we will leave out his offerings – and offerings for his reindeer – and we will listen for the cheerful sound of bells in the night air. We’ll go to sleep hoping that the Spirit of the Season will visit us, not with physical gifts but with good cheer and hope. And with both of those things we’ll move forward into a new secular year.

Holidays

Irish-American Witchcraft

Christmas

Irish-American Witchcraft

Previous Post

December 10, 2017

Book of Blackbirds: The Choice

Next Post

January 1, 2018 Irish-American Witchcraft: 2017 Retrospective in Books

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Lakeside Hearth Adventures in Wortcunning Alone In Her Presence Arts, Crafts & Cooking Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft Book of Blackbirds Book Reviews Born-Again Witch Cauldron, Sword, Spear, & Stone Cermony and Liturgy Columns Community Dandelion Seeds Dear Jasmine Druid Thoughts Editor's Picks Everyday Pagan Family & Household Practice Family Traditions Full Frontal Magic Gateway Goddess Guest Articles Happily Heathen Health and Wellness Hearth of Hellenism Heathen Woman Hills of the Horizon History Holidays Horse Goddesses Interfaith Interviews Irish-American Witchcraft Jewish Witch Lamp & Labyrinth Letters from Midgard Literature, Media, Film, Music Loop of Brighid Love, Sex & Relationships Magic or Magick Making Light Naturalistic Traditions Nature News Outside The Circle Pantheisticon Politics Prayers, Poems, Blessings & Stories Queer Femme Mystic Queer of Swords Recipes Ritual and Practice Science and Research Seekers and Guides Seeking the Grail Socially Responsible Magic Spear of Athena Star Made Witch Syncretic Electric Technology The Blooming Staff The Busy Witch The Cartomancer The Crow's Nest The Dance of Pagan Recovery The Hearth of Hellenism The Lady's Quill The Other Side of the Hedge The Path of She The Rantin' Raven The Witches Next Door The Zen Pagan Theology, Ethics, Philosophy Tree City Witch Urban Earthwitch Wayfaring Woman Witch on Fire Wyrd Words

Select a Month January 2026 March 2025 December 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group follows the "Westminster Confession of Faith"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Baptists Presbyterians Catholics Lutherans