Sympathy for Santa : Religion: Some Christians equate St. Nick with Satan. The Rev. Jack Hayford of Van Nuys says he can coexist happily with the Nativity.

The six-foot-long, hand-carved sign hanging over the front door of the Rev. Jack Hayford’s home proclaims, “We believe in Santa Claus”--a Christmas credo that would bring cries of blasphemy against many other conservative pastors.

It’s not a problem for Hayford within his 8,000-member Church on the Way in Van Nuys where a large Christmas tree now dominates each of the church’s two sanctuaries. The new sign, a gift this year to Hayford from his wife Anna, was put up in time for about 1,000 church members to see as they poured through his home on a recent weekend.

Hayford has long preached that secular symbols and the fun associated with Christmas need not be seen as diminishing the holiday’s religious significance.

This month, Hayford, a nationally known pastor, took his case for Santa to a broader audience via the December issue of Charisma, a 225,000-circulation magazine aimed at charismatic and Pentecostal Christians.

Noting that, at worst, some Christians equate Santa with Satan and some churches turn a cold shoulder to Dec. 25 gift-giving and gaiety, Hayford wrote, “Whatever arguments are mustered against a commercialized Christmas centered in a secular Santa, I still like the old guy.”

Spiritual Scroogism accomplishes nothing more than “breeding bitterness and turning people from the church,” Hayford wrote. “I’ve picked up the pieces of too many mangled souls to believe the ‘anti-Santa, anti-celebration’ program works.”

The magazine article provoked a heavier-than-average reader response, said J. Lee Grady, news editor of Charisma. “We’ve received many more negative letters than positive ones,” he said.

If any evangelical preacher has the credentials to withstand the criticism, however, Hayford does. He was general editor of the annotated Spirit-Filled Bible published two years ago and was among 12 U. S. evangelical leaders who met with President Clinton at a White House breakfast Oct. 18.

Hayford is co-organizer in Los Angeles of a long-running series of prayer meetings called “Love L. A.” that draw hundreds of conservative Protestant pastors.

In an interview, Hayford said he has heard some Christians say that letting Santa Claus coexist with the baby Jesus in their homes can confuse children. “That can only happen if the parents are confused,” Hayford said.

Two years ago in Tarzana, a Baptist church school stepped into a controversy by ordering pictures of the whiskered gent removed from classrooms. School administrators maintained that they were not anti-Santa, but simply pro-Nativity scenes, since Santa gets plenty of publicity elsewhere.

In a few cases, however, people get nasty about St. Nick, suggesting that Santa is Satan-inspired, Hayford said. “ ‘Look,’ they say, ‘the same letters are in his name, and he wears red.’ ”

In reply, the pastor notes that the Bible does not identify Satan with red or any other color. The image of a horned red devil is the product of non-biblical mythologizing.

“And I think there is nothing in the word of God that argues against celebration while simultaneously showing care and compassion,” Hayford said.

While agreeing with many church-based critics that Christmas is overly commercialized and that extravagant gift-giving should be discouraged, Hayford said that he has encountered instances of parents not allowing their children to give or receive presents at all.

A handful of religious organizations, including Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Worldwide Church of God, do not observe Christmas because the birth of Jesus was not celebrated by the earliest Christians.

Indeed, the first recorded observance of a Christmas celebration was in the mid-4th Century in Rome, when the emerging Christian church apparently designed it as an alternative to the traditional pagan celebrations in December of the Persian god Mithra and the secular holiday of Saturnalia. Scholars agree that no one knows what time of year Jesus was born.

“I’ve become wearied by those debunkers whose stock-in-trade is assailing every enjoyment-filled facet of Christmas on the proposition that God, truth and holiness are threatened by them,” said Hayford, who was ordained in the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

The challenge, he said, is to use the secular for sacred ends.

“Santa is a dramatic emblem of a world crying out for a larger-than-life daddy who will love his kids even when they are not perfect,” said Hayford, adding that the Christian church describes God as just such a father.

When the Church on the Way unveils its decorated Christmas trees at a Sunday service each year, the churchgoers sing the melody to “O Tannenbaum,” but with lyrics written by Hayford that praise Christ.

“We view our sanctuary not as a shrine, not as an escape from the world, but as a family’s living room,” he said. “It would be inconsistent to imagine a living room without a Christmas tree at this time of year.”

One church member, Myrene Morris of Northridge, said she recalls the Sunday night family services of past Decembers when people in the pews were given popcorn to string as they listened to Christmas songs being sung.

“When they sing ‘Jingle Bells,’ he has the men take out their keys and shake them for the sound effect,” she said.

“But at no time does he ever diminish the primary focus on what Christmas means.”