Quotes about Santa Claus

We tend to think that for religion to work, for our prayers to be answered, we should get what we ask for. That is to say, we have confused God with Santa Claus. We think that prayer means giving God the list of things we want and assuring Him that we have been good girls and boys and deserve to get them, and if we haven't been good, the rules we broke were silly rules anyway.

It is the most opulent, most gorgeous land on earth—a land whose wisest are but little wiser than its dullest; a land where the rulers have minds like little children and the law-givers believe in Santa Claus; where ugly women control strong men——

I think we've taken the meaning of Christmas out. People don't stop and think about Jesus or the birth of Jesus. When they think of Christmas, they think of Santa Claus and - for the children, and they think of giving gifts and out-giving the next person of spending their time looking for the right thing for somebody who has everything.

People certainly do not want anyone to bring God into the discussion. They talk about the separation of church and state, but often what they mean is the separation of God from daily life. What business does God have telling us what to do, anyway? If people believe in God at all, they like to think of him as a kind of cosmic Santa Claus who is there to do nice things for people, not disapprove of what we are doing.