How The Press Continues To Perpetuate The Santa Myth

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(OPINION) We are currently in “the most wonderful time of the year,” as the popular Christmas song by Andy Williams goes. For many Christians, however, the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day are marked by Advent, a time of prayer in preparation for the birth of Jesus. In Eastern churches, this season is called Nativity Lent.

Advent is one of those religious customs largely ignored by the mainstream press. Many newspapers and TV networks are more preoccupied with the economics around the season — Black Friday marks the beginning of the shopping-mall season for them — along with things like trendy Advent calendars (which these days are largely devoid of any religiosity) and Santa Claus, the hero previously known as St. Nicholas.

In fact, the things the mainstream media value this time of year are starkly different from the message worshippers in ancient Christian traditions get in church during Sunday liturgies in the weeks preceding Dec. 25.

This is not something that’s entirely new. Even as a child growing up in New York, I could sense a disconnect between the materialism around me and the Christmas I celebrated at home — featuring a Nativity crèche and Advent wreath. The “Peanuts” Christmas special had Charlie Brown bemoaning the commercialization of the season — that aired in 1965, and network executives worried that it was too religious even back then.

Where are we now? Amid talk of supply-chain issues, inflation, the ongoing pandemic and political bickering in Washington (with politicians posing with guns on their Christmas cards), it looks pretty bleak out there.

This time of year is yet another reminder of what the mainstream media values and the divide over what most Americans think and believe. This is where the Roman Catholic press is of great value to help frame not just what’s important but also what is more connected to the traditions and reality of this time of year.

In particular, it’s interesting to look for coverage on the backstory of St. Nicholas. Hold that thought.

Let’s start here. Scanning various news sites the last two weeks led me to notice a larger trend. Overall, the industry is suffering from an identity crisis. The Harvard-based Nieman Lab, which takes a closer look at the media, ran a piece under the headline, “Solidarity eclipses objectivity as journalism’s dominant ideal.” Here’s what the piece argues:

Objectivity as an aspirational ideal ends up encouraging journalists to avoid addressing what matters. Ignoring questions of meaning and significance in the “service” of objectivity — to instead report “water is falling from the sky” — offers nothing of informational value to readers whose lives might be in danger. The observable fact of water falling from the sky doesn’t — and can’t — speak for itself. This isn’t just a problem in weather coverage, of course: In coverage of issues like immigration, Covid-19, police brutality, and housing instability, the idea that observations will objectively speak for themselves is quickly off the table.

Then what is the point of journalism? The piece argues it is this:

Striving for objectivity, then, leads journalism to a dead end. On the other hand, an ideal and method of solidarity for social justice is much more aligned with what the best journalists have always tried to do: inform the public of issues that matter, hold institutional power accountable, and challenge society to be better by urging us to care about more than ourselves.

It's against this backdrop that Christmas news is often covered. That also explains the coverage Santa Claus gets these days.

Yes, Santa Claus.

Turns out covering jolly old St. Nick isn’t so easy. I recently came across a 2016 blog post published by the National Catholic Register with the headline, “What Happened to St. Nicholas?” The piece makes the following point:

Devotion to St. Nicholas is still strong in the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church and in the Orthodox Church, but in the West St. Nicholas has suffered a setback.

How could such a universally popular saint go into a devotional tailspin? I blame the Rev. Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863). Yeah, that’s right, the poet who gave us the classic, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Moore’s original title for his poem was “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” and that’s how all the trouble started.

This is exactly the type of story I wish more news organizations would publish. Moore could have never imagined the secular genie he had unleashed back in the 1800s. St. Nicholas, whose feast day is Dec. 6, goes largely ignored in the United States. Santa, on the other hand, is for everyone.

The building of the Santa myth was, in part, fueled by newspapers and, of course, advertising. It was in 1897 when 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun. A response was printed, in the form of an unsigned editorial on Sept. 21 of that year, confirming Santa’s existence. It was the work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church that has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies and other editorials and on posters and stamps.

“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” — but how is he reflected in the present-day media?

In New York, SantaCon — where men and women dressed like Santa Claus go bar hopping — returned despite the ongoing pandemic after it was canceled in 2020.

In Italy, a bishop had to publicly apologize after he told a group of children that Santa Claus doesn’t exist.

Meanwhile, in Norway — a Scandinavian nation that has long celebrated St. Nicholas — a new ad revealed Santa Claus is gay. Last month, the country’s postal service Posten Norge released the following ad, “When Harry met Santa.”

It made headlines around the world. In the U.S. press, the coverage of said ad is a great example of the objectivity versus solidarity debate. It was also widely picked up by websites looking to provide readers with light holiday stories.

People magazine, for example, reported the story this way:

Posten, the Norwegian Postal Service, is celebrating the upcoming 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Norway with a heartwarming holiday advertisement.

In the ad, titled "When Harry Met Santa," Saint Nick finds himself falling in love with a man whose home he visits each year.

The pair first meet accidentally while a shirtless Harry is grabbing a glass of water on Christmas Eve as Santa leaves presents in a nearby room. The two lock eyes briefly before Santa disappears up the chimney — and fireworks appear in the sky.

Harry anxiously awaits Santa's return each year following their initial meeting, and the pair's bond continues to deepen with each passing year, making their time apart increasingly difficult.

The ad was not deemed “controversial” — a word journalists often use to present the other side in a news story. People didn’t interview anyone for this story, and it was covered in a positive, even happy, light.

Newsweek, which also chose to cover this story, summarized the ad but did include this line:

This advert has sparked an intense debate on issues surrounding homosexuality, sexuality and Christmas.

Kudos to them for even acknowledging that a variety of opinions exist on this subject.

Reuters covered it this way:

Reactions to the ad were overwhelmingly positive, a spokesperson for the mail service said.

Among those who commented publicly was former U.S. ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford, who is himself gay.

“Oh man I love Scandinavia. Imagine if the US Post Office put out an ad like this,” he tweeted.

The “When Harry met Santa” ad was made by Norwegian creative agency POL and producers B-Reel Films.

I don’t expect well-researched and thought-provoking reporting from People magazine, but I do from Reuters.

What’s the context for this ad? How religious is Norway? Has there been a decline in church attendance? Anyone prominent people in Norway, or on Twitter, not happy with this ad? None of those questions are addressed in their article. It reads like a press release.

You can see a variety of press models at work here. Gay rights, according to the solidarity approach, is to be celebrated. Many mainstream publications won’t bother to cover the “other side” on this issue. And many didn’t. To get that other side, you have to read the conservative religious press, such as CBN, or blogs such as Rod Dreher at The American Conservative. That other side is also ideological. It is generally found in opinion writing. There’s a place for that, too, in our news feeds, but not at the expense of reporting.

If Santa is gay in Norway, in America it’s important to know that he is fully vaccinated. Dr. Anthony Fauci proclaimed that even Santa had gotten his COVID-19 booster shot. This is what USA Today reported on Dec. 8:

As Christmas approaches, Santa is making a list and checking it twice. He’s also ready to deliver presents around the world after receiving his COVID-19 booster shot, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert.

“Santa already has great innate immunity," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told USA TODAY. "This year he is even more protected because he has been fully vaccinated and boosted. Santa will be just fine and is good to go!”

That means children around the world can rest assured – Santa is ready to come down the chimney, eat cookies and participate in other traditions this holiday season.

Last year, Fauci told USA TODAY that Santa wouldn’t be at risk of “spreading any infections to anybody.”

This is, of course, a story that continues the Santa myth. Would such a story ever treat St. Nicholas the same way had Fauci invoked him?

Ultimately, what does all this mean? It’s further proof we are increasingly living in our own media silos. The 2016 election that gave us former President Donald Trump bemoaned that we lived in such “bubbles.” Five years later, a new generation of journalists has embraced the bubbles or even covered them in concrete.

Objectivity in journalism at least attempts to be fair to everyone when covering an issue. It’s the type of news reporting that makes for an informed citizenry. Solidarity, on the other hand, is ideological. It is in the eye of the beholder. Who decides what issues journalists must have solidarity towards? Doesn’t that change from year to year or decade to decade? Does it help foster trust in the information one reads/sees?

The coverage Santa gets (and St. Nicholas doesn’t) is just an example. Another is the type of Santa stories we do get and how they are covered. It warmed my heart to read a recent Cincinnati Inquirer story (kudos for local journalism!) on why the city values St. Nicholas over Kris Kringle. Here’s the key section from that Dec. 3 news story:

It's the week of Thanksgiving yet Christmas plans and celebrations have somehow crept to the forefront. It's an etiquette question many families who celebrate Christmas face every year. And some have even fixed rules about how to navigate the season.

Rules such as: No Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, or no decorations until the beginning of December. Or for some families who exert massive willpower, no Christmas-related festivities until the winter solstice on Dec. 21.

But in historically German Catholic cities such as Cincinnati, the timeline is a bit more concrete. There's a day that exists between Thanksgiving and Christmas that serves as a start to the Christmas season and is often the first big celebration on the Advent Calendar.

The Feast of St. Nicholas, commonly known as St. Nick's Day, takes place annually on Dec. 6 and though it involves stockings and small gifts, it is separate from celebrations on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

It's popular in American cities with large German or Dutch populations such as Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Cleveland.

What do I want this Christmas? More objectivity in news coverage on cultural issues would be a start. More St. Nicholas and less Santa Claus would also be nice if there’s room for that in my stocking.

This piece originally ran at GetReligion.