Santa: Yes or No?

Don’t worry about over-deconstructing.

It’s not that Jesus can’t compete with Santa.

You can tell kids Christmas is a celebration of Christ’s birth, but if Santa gives them expensive gifts, that is what it will be about.

It’s really a simple issue of honesty and credibility.

Be prepared to deal with consequences of your kids knowing what their friends do not, though.

Kids are ‘black and white’ thinkers and they’ll want to tell their friends the truth, which could get you into hot water with their parents.

We encouraged our kids to let their friends’ parents be the ones to tell them (their friends) the truth about Santa.

I grew up with Santa, and an image of Jesus that was not altogether different. Santa was like an older Jesus who came around annually and made Jesus’ birthday a lot more exciting. Once I was nearly old enough to know the truth I learned that Santa was really my parents. That put Jesus into question, but not really. After all, my parents still pointed to Jesus as special and Santa became a sort of kind-hearted prank.

Now grown, I hold all the values that you mentioned (my mom was single for a while and worked as long as I can remember). All things considered, I can’t see how Santa really hurts anybody.

We opted not to try to convince our kids Santa was “real.” And, like Tim, we encouraged them not to spoil it for other children whose parents made different choices.

We haven’t excised the jolly old elf from our decorating or anything. I read Tolkien’s Father Christmas Letters to them, and they know about Nicholas of Myra. Sometimes people give anonymous presents, and these are almost always from “Santa.”

What I find most interesting, however, is that our oldest insists on leaving cookies and milk on Christmas Eve.

Actually, I find the Easter rodent to be more nefarious than Santa. One reason is that, like the early church (which did not even have Christmas until around 300 C.E.), I think Easter is more important than Christmas. A second reason is that bunnies and eggs have nothing to do with resurrection. In the case of Santa, there is at least a giving-receiving connection to the Christian story. Santa gives gifts; God gives gifts (“The gifts of God for the people of God,” as my tradition’s liturgy puts it). Nor should the practices of receiving gifts be belittled. Are we not called to receive the kingdom of God—the gift of salvation? As Stanley Hauerwas has said, learning how to receive gifts is a sign of moral maturity (A Community of Character, p. 146). Of course, Hauerwas is a white male….

I am thankful that for my children Jesus is not “invisible,” but is instead embodied year-round in the concrete practices of our faith-community. Santa, in his garish garb, is hardly “invisible”; yet he only comes around once a year. Against Jesus, Santa doesn’t stand a chance; his story simply isn’t as compelling.

My two young children know that Christmas is about Jesus. Sure, they probably still believe that Santa fills their stockings. But they also know that their parents and their families and their God give them good gifts.

I think you’re absolutely right on with this. Santa is nothing more than a vending machine. Plus, I’ll never forget how mad I was about the whole Santa thing as a kid when I found out. Devastated, I practically yelled, “You lied to me ?”

My dad never forgot that conversation either.

As far as rabbits go, as the owner of 3 house rabbits I can assure you that they hold no theological potential. They are lazy loafers and will always be so. The only uses we have for them are lap warming and using their “pellets” for our garden’s compost pile. Just thought you should know… :)

I’m not yet a parent, but I decided long ago not to tell my future children about the fictional jolly, fat man who has this unbelievable power to grant impossible Christmas wishes at the expense of poor, struggling parents all but forced to buy into the consumerist nonsense that Christmas has unfortunately become.

Instead, I want to tell them about St. Nicholas, Santa’s namesake, a devout and generous man who gave not to those who were “good for goodness sake” but to those who were truly in need. What’s more, he did this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Recently, a parent of two scolded me for wanting to take away from their fragile, yet active imaginations, from their ability to believe in anything. I was a little taken aback by this irony. He encourages his older son not to “ruin the magic” for his younger daughter, when it comes to knowing Santa Claus isn’t real. Now, I’m not one to judge how other people raise their children, but how does a child recover from that knowledge that your parents have lied to you? It may sound blown out of proportion, but we trust our parents to set examples for us, and one of the first examples we get is that it’s ok to lie if it makes someone feel better? This is a terrible lesson to be teaching our children! Why do this when we have a much better example to give them through the generosity, selflessness, and love inspired by the most generous, selfless, and loving of all? Why dumb down the works of a bishop and a saint done in the name of Jesus into a fat man in red who gives little kids whatever they want as long as they’ve behaved well that year? And this “good for goodness sake” is nonsense. We’ve taught our children to be good so they’ll be rewarded with toys that they’ll play with once or twice and forget about. We’ve taught them to be self-serving liars, and then we wonder about the state of the world. Shouldn’t we, instead, be teaching them to be good because they’ll be rewarded beyond our own understanding through the love of God and the sacrifice of His Son?
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This year, at age 7, our son finally decided to suspend his disbelief and let a gift-giving fat man with flying reindeer into his imagination. We’d neither encouraged it nor discouraged it. I think it has more to do with his peer group than whether or not Santa is for real.

On the other hand, the Wise Ones show up every year after Christmas and put little treats in the stocking. Then, on Epiphany, they leave one really nice gift. This is a Mediterranean tradition that connects directly to the story of Jesus’ birth, and that has more to do with hidden appreciation of someone than with more stuff.

The great thing is that the Wise Ones can be ANYONE – people at the store, people on the sidewalk, people at the bus stop….Any of them could be one of the Wise Ones. So let’s treat them all well, and maybe they’ll treat us well in return.

i WAS DETERMINED NOT TO PROMOTE THE SANTA STORY. So I didn’t. I often had to notice the man “dressed as Santa” which meant it was a costume, like on Halloween. The think the obese white man in the red suit is the god of capitalism. It’s all about materialism. And be “good” so you’ll get a material gift!

“But theologically speaking, Santa is in direct competition with Jesus, and it seems that Jesus pales in comparison.”

i would add “in the American mindset.” maybe even just in the protestant mindset because as a former catholic, St. Nick is a saint and we don’t forget that.

wrote a whole sermon on it, rawk it out!

http://toothface.blogspot.com/2008/11/santas-occupational-seasonal-disorder.html

It was no big deal for us, Santa was just another mythical figure, and has never figured prominently in our Christmas celebrations.

I think because we never including him in Christmas our kids never had a problem with him.

There are a lot of points that can be made to any side of this argument, and in the end it comes down to the individual. My own hedge on this is to let my daughter know from the beginning that Santa is a big commercial fake that many people use as another holiday symbol. I cling to a dichotomy where there are “holidays,” which are big secular parties to let us all blow off some steam, and “holy days,” which commemorate faith-related events. I’m not that into Christmas (who knows when Jesus was born, anyway?) as Christmastide – a season from the beginning of Advent to Epiphany. People celebrate Hanukkah, Saturnalia, Kwanzaa, Festivus, and whatnot during that period, but Jesus’ birth is something I cannot fully appreciate in one day, or one lifetime, for that matter.

yea, I am going through the same thing. My sister, God bless her, told the girls that they would see the real santa this year at her house, hmmm, thanks sis. I think I may ride it out till Christmas is over and beak it to Emma, our 6 year old then. Maybe I can tell her that Santa is Jesus distant cousin who is jealous and is trying to get favor with us by bringing us gifts cause he can’t compete with Jesus, just kidding. Anyway, i appreciate your thoughts, it is nice to know we are not alone in the whole santa parenting thing. your killin my here santa clause

This blog post and all of the comments that followed really broke my heart. I grew up in a Christian home and in our house we believed in Santa. My Mother did an AMAZING job of allowing us to believe in the magic of Santa, and at the same time instilling in us the real and true meaning of Christmas. You see at our house we knew that Santa brought preasents to remind us of the greatest gift of all, Jesus. We focused on a daily advent from Thanksgiving through New Years, but that didn’t mean that we couldn’t enjoy some magic and imagination as well. We were kids! As far as wanting to make sure that kids know that the preasents are from you and not santa because you work so hard to get those gifts, well I just really think that is a little selfish. Taking away the fun of santa to put the attention on yourself doesn’t sound like a lesson that I want to teach my children. It is possible to incorporate Santa into Christmas and still keep Chrit as the center of it all.

this past week we went on a disney cruise with my two kids and my in-laws (who paid for the trip, so keep your judgments about spending thousands of dollars on a cruise when there is so much work to be done in the fight against poverty and social injustice…and come on, I’d like to see any of you say “no” to a week in the Caribbean for free. But I seriously digress, one of the highlights of the trip for my kids (5 and 9) was when they got to shake hands with Mickey Mouse although my son was a bit freaked at the sight of a 6 foot rat he non the less gave Mr. Mouse a hug and then talked about it for the next three hours so my thought is does it make any sense for me to look deep into my sons big brown eyes and say “buddy I know how excited you were to meet Mickey but I have to tell you that was just some poor sap in a hot flannel suit, the truth is that this Mickey character is just a corporate logo used to shill millions of dollars out of Millions of children to help fuel the commercial wreaking ball that is the root of all american evil…consumerism” or does it make more sense to allow my son a bit of wonder and magic in his life before he is plunged into this greed driven society that seems to be at constant odds with our families spirituality. “trail up a child…” Im not worried about santa disrupting my childrens faith any more then I am worried about my kids cursing me ten years from now for perpetuating the lie that Mickey Mouse was just some theater student in a sweaty outfit. But hey it all comes down to the fact that these are our kids and that we all have different parenting styles and different home lives that hopefully reflect our beliefs so in the question of yes or no, I think that there is no right or wrong. Merry Christmas and thanks for a wonderful post!

Yes Santa sucks as Christian tradition; but damn! lady, have some pity on a poor white brother!

I saw this AWESOME picture online somewhere of Santa bending over the baby Jesus in his little feeding trough, saying “I understand, they ruined my story too.” That took me back a bit. Saint Nicholas’ story all but never existed as far as we all know today. But he was a man of God, expanding the Kingdom on earth today. Isn’t that a strange thought to us today?

Here is a comment I made at another EV post about Christmas:
“I was frustrated with the extreme occurance of Santa-related themes in the Christmas season, and he gave me a better perspective. He pointed out that thanks to Santa, the world celebrates Christmas. Therefore, the world has a better chance of hearing about the Story of the Christ-child. How awesome is that? Yes, it is a flawed system, but it is something that is furthering the Kingdom. I’ll take it. I don’t promote Santa very highly myself, but he is welcome here. :-)”

Santa plays a small role in our Christmas celebration, but he is there.

Ponder this: A child’s imagination is a beautiful thing. The magic of the holidays I remember from childhood include fantasies about these unseen, mysterious beings who loved me and sought to bring goodness to me. It kinda opens the way toward believing in an unseen God and Savior who loves me and desires to bring goodness to me. Just a thought.

Being a first generation to not “play” Santa, I can say it was the best decision. Our children grew up knowing that Christmas was about Christ. When the grandparents gave gifts from “Santa” our children made no big deal about it. They understood other children “believed in Santa” and that was never an issue. Now we have a foster daughter that is raising a son and on her own, decided to not teach the Santa story either. That was not our idea, she said she did not like being lied to herself. She did seek our advice not even knowing what we did when our own children were small. I recommend all Christians teach Christ for Christmas and explain the Santa story even at the earliest ages.

My problem with Santa isn’t so much the truth vs. lie problem as it is the suggestion that you should expect to receive whatever you want on the basis of being “good.” I think that concept follows us well into adulthood.

thought this published the other day – but i guess not :-(

We’re not parents yet, but we’ve had discussions about what we might do about Santa Claus when that time comes. I don’t think we’ve come to a firm conclusion yet.

I heard some great stories this weekend on Travel with Rick Steves about how many other cultures celebrate Christmas and the holiday season (http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/streaming/program117a.asx).

What intrigued me most were the several countries who celebrate St. Nicholas Day on the 6th of December – and that’s when their children receive gifts. There are variations of this as well – and in Sicily, they receive gifts on All Saints Day (Nov 1) from dead relatives (creepy).

But it seemed like all cultures left the gifts to other dates and then celebrated Christmas on Dec 24-26 with church services and family. The gifts weren’t part of the picture.

So, what if we too celebrated St. Nicholas Day on Dec 6th and used it as a day to remember the saint (and other saints) who gave all they had. And we gave small gifts to our children on those days in remembrance of the saint. And then on Christmas morning, rather than rushing to open presents – we bundled up as a family and found ways to serve others – giving of our SELVES.

Another idea we’ve had is to take from the Jewish tradition of Hanukkah and give a small gift on each Sunday of Advent and then give a slightly larger one on Christmas morning.

I am young and unmarried, but I have already decided not to “do the santa thing” with my kids. I cried for a long long time and was very angry at my parents when I found out santa was a lie. Plus as Christians we are supposed to uphold truth and not purpetuate lies. I think that not practicing the myth of Santa as America knows him is a wonderful opportunity to get creative with the true meaning of Christmas (not creative as in change the story, but as in how we celebrate). There are many wonderful things a family can do to start their own traditions to replace the commercial traditions. For instance, St. Nick gave to the poor children and Christ focused on helping the poor so instead of emphasizing getting gifts your family can give to those less fortunate. If that is what you teach your children from an early stage then that is what they will know as Christmas traditions.

Another comment: I was disappointed by the remarks about Santa being white and male. Why is that an issue? If we are to remove racism and sexism then it must go both ways. If the truth about St. Nick was that he was white and male, then who are you to want to squash that truth or be ashamed of it? Remember that God created all races and both male and female sex. It is PC right now to beat up on the “white man” but that is hardly Christian and very racist/sexist. Also the idea that someone has to know that you were the person who worked hard to give the gift is also unChristian. Remember that Christ told us to not even let our left hand know when the right hand is giving. Giving is not about the giver and any gift given in an effort to receive praise is hardly with good intentions.

That being said I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

just say yes or no