Topic: Christmas Star, Secularism, Santa Claus

In New York's Hayden Planetarium a special Christmas holiday show was enhanced by an added feature. A giant lollipop tree was projected onto the planetarium dome, surrounded by a horizon filled with brilliantly colored toys which came to life and cavorted to the tune of "Jingle Bells." At the climax a huge figure of Santa Claus faded out in a snowstorm, and the star of Bethlehem broke through into a sky that produced exactly the Palestine sky on the night of the nativity.

The designer of this show may not realize he dramatically staged the supreme Christmas message our world needs to understand: The recovery of the lost meaning of Christmas. This is not said in any criticism of Santa Claus; the effect must have delighted the hearts of all the children who saw it, without doing violence to their love of Bethlehem. But for adults it is a tragic loss to substitute "Jingle Bells" for "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," and a lollipop tree replaced the manger of Bethlehem. The instinct is right to fade out these things in the light of the Christmas star. It is about God's incarnation the angels sang -- God with us.

Robert E. Luccock in James W. Cox, The Minister's Manual: 1994, San Fransico: Harper Collins, 1993, p. 218. sermons.org/christmas5

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