Posted by Anthony on December 29, 2009
We don’t teach our kids that Santa Claus is ‘real’ but that doesn’t mean I find the idea horrid. See this post for my reasons for not raising my kids to ‘believe in Santa Claus’ and the ironical result that the oldest boy nonetheless… believes in Santa Claus.
Apart from the discussion linked above, this morning I was reminded of another element of the modern day Santa Claus phenom I don’t like.
We celebrated Christmas today as a family because we were traveling over the holiday. In the morning, my oldest- whom I just said believes in Santa despite our efforts- sized up the presents and counted the ones ‘from Santa.’ Some are listed as being from Santa just for his sake.
He didn’t spot any for one of his brothers and announced to the brother, “You must be on Santa’s naughty list because you don’t have any presents from him.” I confronted him immediately on this and then told his brother (who was beginning to tear up) that mommy and daddy were Santa Claus but, “Shhhhh, your brother doesn’t know that yet.” (This was said in the hearing of the eldest.)
While I like the idea of celebrating God’s gift to humanity by giving gifts to each other, the Santa Claus mythology has a twist that I just don’t appreciate: On Christmas we celebrate God’s free gift to a very naughty humanity that did nothing to deserve it and can do nothing to cause God to withhold it, but Santa Claus only gives his gifts to those who are not on his ‘naughty list.’
This is devilish twist of God’s grace that just bothers me and one more reason why we don’t tell our kids that Santa Claus is ‘real.’ Granted, this devilish twist doesn’t have to be there… parents could counter act it. I’m not here judging anyone, I’m just making an observation.
Posted by Anthony on December 17, 2008
I noticed that I was getting some traffic related to this question that is linked to my recent post comparing and contrasting Santa Claus with Jesus, arguing that in spite of atheistic pot shots about the difference between belief in Santa and belief in Jesus is that kids grow out of belief in Santa, the fact is that there is historical evidence for Santa- and even more evidence for Jesus.
But these searchers want to know if Christians should promote the belief in the commercialized myth of Santa.
Personally, I would answer as ‘No. No, you should not.’ The reasons are varied. For one thing, I think that the general rule is that parents ought to tell their children the truth about reality. Believe it or not, but I have actually encountered atheists- in real life and online- who indicated that finding out that ‘Santa isn’t real’ undermined their certainty in the existence of God and in Jesus’ resurrection. You don’t have to believe it and you don’t have to agree with these atheists in the extension of their logic, but nontheless, there they are.
As indicated in the previous blog entry (linked above) I think that there is value, however, in pointing out that there was in fact a historical person behind the Santa story. I expect that this will have the opposite effect of what I just described, where young people will see that their parents tell the truth, but also that just because something is old doesn’t mean it isn’t true or valid. Though no one when pressed admits that they are dismissing something (ie, like the idea that Jesus even existed) merely because the data is old, in actual attitude that is precisely why they are dismissing it. Examples of this are a dime a dozen. By explaining that can distinguish between fact and fantasy from the historical record most of the time, one puts themselves in a position where they can lay important groundwork for trusting the New Testament accounts.
You might say that it seems a little ridiculous to be worried about such things when we’re just talking about something as innocent as Santa Claus but the facts are what they are. Read the rest of the entry… »
