This story relates to one of the stories I was told as a child during Sunday school. It popped into my head while I was writing my Xomba Green story, jdubhub is...Santa Claus. this past weekend.

For those who don't know, I was born Catholic and converted to Protestantism by attending a Baptist Sunday school and church and going through the usual rituals at age 8. At Christmas, when I was age 12, the youth pastor was telling us all about the Birth of Jesus (although not exactly why He was born on December 25th, though) and comparing that message to how the world views Christmas. Because I was young and impressionable, I was really shocked when the pastor told me that "Santa" is really just another way of saying "Satan".

Needless to say, it took a lot of the luster off of my family's Christmas traditions. I wondered if continuing to participate in those traditions would make me a practicing Satanist or if my soul was in jeopardy.

Imagine my surprise when, in my Spanish class in 9th Grade, I found out that "Santa" is really another way of saying "Saint". Oh, those rascally church people never bothered to learn another Spanish or French or Italian or Portuguese or Latin.

Plus, I live in California, where we have cities where missions were long-ago established and named after saints. Should I believe that Santa Maria is Saint Mary or Satan Mary? Should I believe that Santa Rosa is Saint Rose or Satan Rose? You get the idea.

What's the moral to this story? To me it's this: If you are in a position to influence the impressionable minds of young people, make sure you stick to the truth and not resort to telling lies to defend your beliefs.
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The preceding was based on a true story--I was told that Santa was Satan. The rest was embellished a little for the purposes of satire and to poke a little bit of fun at people whose beliefs are so rigid and uptight that they won't bother to learn that the traditions on which Saint Nicholas is based pre-dates even Christianity, so the idea that Santa Claus was invented to keep people from thinking about Jesus on the day he was born is just silly.

Oh, wait, He wasn't born on December 25th. Bah, that's a topic for another discussion entirely.