There has for many decades considerable disquiet in many Christian circles about the pre-eminence of Santa Claus as a Christmas figure. Starting in the 1940s many Catholics in America and Europe protested about the triumph of the North Pole over Bethlehem. In 1951 Catholic bishops in Dijon, France staged an execution of Père Noël, burning him in effigy in front of the cathedral. Later in the century Protestant evangelicals began to evince the same concern. We can see this in the country and western song by Toby Keith, entitled “Jesus Gets Jealous of Santa Claus”.
In order to rectify this tension in Christian families that still support Santa mythology, artists and decoration makers have placed Santa Claus in a reverent position beside the cradle, showing his proper subordination to the Baby Jesus. The ornament below is from my collection:
