Yea, Santa is the more secular icon. There are even Christians that take issue with the Santa character (which is a combination of "Pagan" and Christian mythos). I put Pagan in quotes, as that's a Christian term for certain non-Christian beliefs.

[–] riskable@programming.dev 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Santa is a stand-in for Jesus... for children. They're both magical beings that can perform miracles and have similar methods: Both Santa and Jesus have naughty lists and forms of punishment that come later; much later (both are equivalent lengths of time to a child though 🤣). Both bring "gifts". Both have traditional appearances. Both have followers that wear silly hats and strange clothes. But most importantly...

Both are imaginary.

If you believe in Santa as an adult you're ridiculed. If you believe in Jesus as an adult you're just labeled, "Christian". Yet the fact that nearly every child eventually finds out Santa isn't real is quite disturbing to a lot of Christians. After all, if they could stop believing in Santa--who is so similar to Jesus in every way--then they could stop believing in Jesus.

[–] P4ulin_Kbana@lemmy.eco.br 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You might not believe about what the Bible says about Jesus, but historically, there was at some point a person named Jesus. Whether or not he was like the Bible describes is another story. /lh

[–] Scary_le_Poo 1 points 14 hours ago

There were probably thousands of others named Jesus as well. What is this supposed to prove?

[–] riskable@programming.dev 3 points 21 hours ago

Historically, there were probably tens of thousands of people named, "Jesus" around that time. There were also loads and LOADS of people crucified by the Romans. If you were to make up a story and try to make it believable wouldn't you pick a likely starting point?

[–] puchaczyk@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Santa is based on Saint Nicholas of Myra, so he definitely has something to do with Christianity.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 11 points 1 day ago

The modern depiction of Santa is based on Coca-Cola.

[–] TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Besides both being fairy tales, I would say it's even anti religious, since religious Christmas clashes with it, yet he doesn't bring gifts to baby Jesus. He brings commercial toys to all the other children.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago

Not to the poor children.