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go
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ahead hello my name is Michael Barber
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I'm a professor here at the Augustine
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Institute graduate school and this is
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what Catholics believe about Christmas
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part
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two was Santa Claus a real person yes he
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most certainly was uh we have good
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reason to believe he was born uh around
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260 and he became the bishop of mea and
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he was known for giving gifts he had
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been born to a wealthy family and few
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people knew that he had this personal
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wealth he didn't keep it for himself he
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gave it away and there's a famous story
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that goes back to the earliest account
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of St Nicholas which is written in 700
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so sometime after St Nicholas so we want
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to be cautious about you know the
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historical details here but in the
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earliest stories we read about him
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giving gifts to a man who was going to
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have to um do terrible things because he
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was in poverty and so Nicholas saves
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this wonderful little family uh from
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poverty with his gift giving so all of
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that is why giftgiving is associated
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with Christmas most importantly we want
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to become like the Lord we want to
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imitate God and uh and so we give gifts
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as he gave us the most perfect gift how
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did Santa Claus become associated with
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Christmas Santa Claus is basically
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derived from St Nicholas so many people
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imagine that Santa Claus is a very
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different character but as Catholics I
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don't think we should let that go um in
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fact non-catholic Christians Protestants
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in the 19th century in the 1800s in New
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York became convinced that they needed a
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saint uh to help Rebrand Christmas so
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some of the aristocratic figures in New
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York um they decided that they that
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America needed a better Association for
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Christmas and so John pintard who was
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the head of the New York Historical
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Society uh had a big banquet and he had
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made he personally commissioned a
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massive portrait of St Nicholas and he
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implored other new new yorkin is that a
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word new yorkin anyway he imployed
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others to think about imitating St
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Nicholas because he was associated with
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gift giving so rather than acting
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selfishly on Christmas we should imitate
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the example of a saint who is trying to
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imitate Christ and so he really pushed
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Santa Claus and a man who was in the
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audience that day was Washington Irving
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the famous writer and he made a point
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then of talking about St Nicholas in
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connection with Christmas most
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importantly there was a poem uh it's
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usually attributed to uh clay Moore I
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think and uh anyway he most likely did
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not write that poem but the Night Before
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Christmas all through the house not a
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creature was stirring that even a mouse
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he wrote that and he specifically ass
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Associated Santa Claus with Christmas in
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that poem and forever after that he
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would be Associated and many people
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today I want to make this point many
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people today many Catholics today think
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St Nicholas or Santa Claus is the kind
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of anti type of Christmas or kind of
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sellout of Christmas to popular culture
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nothing could be further from the truth
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in fact the idea of giving gifts to
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people in the name of St Nicholas
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started in the 1100s when French nuns
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would bring candy and toys to orphans
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and children who were in poor families
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who wouldn't get any presents and they
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would leave presents at the house for
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these children and they would sign it
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from St Nicholas and the idea was it was
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St Nicholas example that inspired their
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giftgiving later historians like Timothy
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Larson will say that to give as a
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Christian was to be a secret Santa and
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they would quote The Sermon on the Mount
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where Jesus says when you give Ms do not
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let your left hand know what your right
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hand is doing that your MMS may be in
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secret and your father who sees in
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secret shall repay you so when you give
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gifts to children in the name of St
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Nicholas on Christmas it's actually an
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act of following Jesus's instruction and
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not trying to use the gifts as a
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leverage over your children but
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remaining Anonymous in that Pro in that
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process so that you don't get the credit
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for the gift to the child that's very
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Catholic St Nicholas is very Catholic
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and I'm all about preserving Santa Claus
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at Christmas time properly understood
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why do we give gifts on Christmas well
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we can remember first of all that on
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Christmas God gave gave us the greatest
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gift of all he gave us his only beloved
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Son there's no greater gift than that
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secondly we can remember that the Magi
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brought gifts uh we now that didn't
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happen on Christmas Day on the day Jesus
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was born but it's still part of the
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overall Narrative of Jesus's birth and
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they bring precious gifts to Jesus and
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then we can also point out that later on
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St Nicholas who is someone who becomes
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closely asso iated with Christmas he was
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known for gift giving so everything that
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I'm talking about and all of the answers
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to the questions here all these things
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are discussed in Greater detail in my
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little book the true meaning of
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Christmas uh the birth of Jesus and the
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origins of the Season which has also
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been translated into Spanish you can get
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these books uh catholic. market and I've
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also done a formed series on Christmas
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uh that I hope you'll check out as well
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in addition of done done a short course
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on Christmas for the Augustine Institute
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you can look that up in our short
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courses but um I think that you'll find
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that this book is a One-Stop shop from
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the birth of Jesus to how we got
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Christmas trees to uh how we got to the
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day December 25th everything is
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discussed in an accessible hopefully
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humorous manner at points uh in this
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book what are some Catholic Traditions
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associated with Christmas well there are
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many Catholic Traditions associated with
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Christmas one is of course Advent the
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other is putting up Christmas trees
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another classic Christian tradition was
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to think of Jesus being born at midnight
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so it's typically understood if you look
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at movies or anything Jesus is born at
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not just night time you get that from
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Luke's gospel but at midnight and the
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reason Christians in previous ages would
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celebrate a midnight Christmas Mass is
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because there's a verse in the wisdom of
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Solomon that says for while gentle
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silence enveloped all things and night
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in its Swift course was now half gone
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when is the night half gone midnight
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right uh then what happened your all
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powerful word leaped from heaven from
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the Royal Throne into the midst of the
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land that was doomed so the word leaped
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from Heaven at midnight and so we have
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this tradition of Christmas happening at
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midnight so what does my family do to
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celebrate Christmas well the most
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important thing my family and I do to
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celebrate Christmas is we go to mass
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because you can't take Mass out of
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Christmas but the other things we do are
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things like we typically uh will
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celebrate Advent in a way where we have
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an Advent wreath at our at our supper
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table we light the candles we talk about
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Advent we talk about the readings uh I
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am a great lover of Christmas so we sing
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lots of Christmas songs uh we set up the
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Christmas tree we decorate the Christmas
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tree together uh and it's just a
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beautiful time for family and to think
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about holy things and usually you can't
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go out to the store and hear songs about
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Jesus but at Christmas time you can so
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how long is Christmas technically
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Christmas ends the season
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ends with Epiphany and ultimately the
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birth of John the Baptist which is
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celebrated in January so most sane
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people take down their Christmas
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decorations in January but I love the
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Christmas tree and so I insist in our
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house that we recognize that the early
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Christians celebrated 40 days after
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Christmas not just 40 days before
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Christmas or not just Advent four weeks
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of Advent you know Christmas is bigger
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than Advent so you many early Christians
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many Christians throughout history would
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attribute the end of the Christmas cycle
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to February 2nd which is the Feast of
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the presentation of the Child Jesus in
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the T Temple so he's still a child in
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that feast and that happens on February
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2nd so uh you could if you really love
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the Christmas season and you don't want
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to see it go uh you could maybe wait
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till February 2nd to declare the end of
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the Christmas season it wouldn't be the
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end of the Christmas season but you
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could say the end of the Christmas cycle
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might be a better way to put it uh more
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technically Catholics talk a lot about
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Advent what's that all right so Advent
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celebrates the three comings of Jesus
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and it's appropriate that we begin
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Advent right before Christmas so the
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fourth Sunday before Christmas we begin
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the celebration of Advent the earliest
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records we have of this go back to the
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fifth century um so it's been practiced
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by Christians for over a thousand years
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now uh and what Advent is doing is
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preparing us for the coming of Christ
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but we want to think of the coming of
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Christ in three ways his coming in his
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Nativity his is coming in our hearts as
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Believers especially by Grace especially
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in the sacraments and prayer and
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meditating on scripture and the third
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way he's coming is at the end of time
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where he will come to judge the living
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and the dead so the time before Jesus's
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first coming at Christmas is an
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appropriate time to reflect on these
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three comings and to prepare for him
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through various penances for more on
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Advent for more Advent Reflections I
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want to point you in in the direction of
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a series called rooted you'll find it on
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formed it's by a Catholic Theologian and
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a professor here at the Augustin
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Institute Scott hefflefinger a dear
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friend of mine uh want to encourage you
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to check that out during the Advent
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season I think you'll get much out of it
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our popular Christmas songs related to
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the Christmas story 100% there are so
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many Christmas songs it's pretty much
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overwhelming to think about them all
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What Child Is This is obviously about
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the birth of Christ The First Noel
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obviously about Jesus's birth Angels We
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Have Heard On High angels are everywhere
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at Christmas if you think about it um
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and that's because the Angels appeared
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to the shepherds in the field and also
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in the gospel of Matthew there's a star
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that goes through the sky a lot of
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people think that's like you know some
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kind of planetary alignment or something
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like that no the ear fathers understood
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that that star was likely in appearance
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of an angel angels and stars are
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inseparable that's why some people put a
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star on top of their tree and other
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people put a angel on the top of their
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tree so uh these things go together but
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you hear the all these songs and um uh
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you know we three kings right the three
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kings song is about that let all mortal
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flesh keep Silence has to be however my
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favorite Christmas song let all mortal
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flesh keep silence and with fear and
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trem
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stand Ponder nothing Earthly
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minded and with something in his hand
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well I got the rest of it just do the
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beginning of it just do the first two
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vers Christ has come to Earth descend
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death right yes that's right but what I
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particularly love about let all mortal
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flesh keep silence aside from the melody
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which is just simply beautiful and the
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minor key is the emphasis on the
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connection between the Incarnation and
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then later in the song on the UK IST so
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the Eucharist is a sort of extension of
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Jesus's Incarnation his body is
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available to us in the Eucharist uh in a
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sacramental mode and that is just
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profoundly glorious what are the 12 Days
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of Christmas well on the first day of
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Christmas my true love gave to me a
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partridge in a pear tree right we know
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that is a Biblical reference as we go on
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we see uh my my love gave me two turtle
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doubs and in the Gospel of Luke uh Mary
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and Joseph bring two turtle doves so
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people have long thought that that song
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might be somehow a coded message and
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Christians sang this song Under
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persecution it's nonsense uh there's no
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historical evidence for that it's just a
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silly goofy song So What really are the
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12 Days of Christmas well the 12 days of
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Christmas are ultimately from the birth
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of Jesus December 25th all the way to
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the Feast of the Epiphany which is
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January 6 that's 12 days and so we would
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celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas in
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that time the particular days become
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very holy so early on Christians wanted
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to celebrate Christmas as an octave they
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celebrated Easter as a 8-day feast an
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octave ancient Jews celebrated the Feast
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of Tabernacles as a 8-day festival we
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see that in Leviticus 23 and so the idea
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was Christians should celebrate an 8-day
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Festival so originally it was January
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1st December 25th to January 1st the
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feast of Mary the Mother of God and then
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other feast days seem to have got rolled
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into that like the Feast of St step on
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December 26 the Feast of John the
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Apostle on John on on December 27th and
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then the Feast of the slaughter of the
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Holy Innocents on December 28th what do
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all these have in common they're all
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Martyrs and as we see in the earliest
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document that clearly indicates that
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December 25th was celebrated as the
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birthday of Jesus uh we see there that
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those feast days of the martyrs are
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understood as birthdays they're Heavenly
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birthdays so we're going to celebrate
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Jesus's birthday now let's celebrate the
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Heavenly birthdays of the martyrs so it
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was French Christians who were the first
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to think of 12 Days of Christmas linking
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December 25th the birthday of Jesus to
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the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6
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thanks for watching these videos on what
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Catholics believe want to wish you you
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and your family a blessed and merry
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Christmas thanks so much for watching
