To Santa or Not to Santa?

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s Christmas!  The most wonderful time of the year.  I love everything about Christmas:  Christmas trees, cooler weather, boots, Christmas lights, Christmas carols, presents, decorations, nice people, hot chocolate.  But there is one thing I’m not a huge fan of, and that’s Santa:(

GASP!

I know.  I know.  Just call me Scrooge.  Or the Grinch.

My husband and I agreed before we even had kids that we would not be telling them that Santa was real.  You can’t really avoid Santa at Christmas, so we made a decision to intentionally tell our kids that Santa is not real.

Now, I’m not here to judge you or tell you that you’re a bad parent if you do the Santa thing, but there may be some parents out there that are on the fence about this issue, so let me give you a few of the reasons why we have chosen not to do Santa.

Jesus is the Reason for the Season

First of all, the entire reason for the holiday of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, who humbled Himself and came to earth in the form of a baby to grow and live and die and rise from the dead to save mankind from their sins.  As Christian parents, the most important thing that we want for our girls is for them to know and believe in Jesus and have a personal relationship with Him.

We talk about Jesus and God and the Bible with our girls all the time – not just at Christmas – and it can be hard sometimes to explain to little minds that Jesus is real and is always with them even though they can’t see Him. So why complicate things by telling them that there is also this jolly red guy that is always watching them, who flies around the whole world in one night, and gives them things if they’ve been good only to tell them in a couple years from now that we were lying about that Santa guy all along?

The last thing we want is for our kids to start questioning if that “Jesus” guy is real too. Because let’s face it, in a kid’s eyes there are a lot of similarities:

Jesus	Santa
Invisible	Invisible
Omnipresent (everywhere at once)	Omnipresent (able to be all  over the whole world in one night and is able to see all kids in the world all the time to know if they’ve been bad or good)
Omnipotent (all-powerful)	Omnipotent (can deliver all the toys in a single night)
Omnipresent (all-knowing)	Omnipresent (knows if you’ve been bad or good)
Does miracles	Is magical
Giver of all good gifts	Gift Giver
Eternal	Eternal/Ageless

Am I over-exaggerating or over-analyzing things?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I realize there are plenty of kids who believed in Santa that also grew up to know and love Jesus.  But why take the risk?

Honesty is always the best policy

I’m all for imagination, but there is a difference between playing “pretend” and intentionally misleading your children into believing something that isn’t true – and going to great lengths to do so – even when they start to question.

First of all, I’m sure every parent wants their children to be honest and truthful, and the best way to teach something is to model it.

Secondly, how many of you have ever known or seen that kid that swears to all their “unbelieving” friends that Santa is real, and they know so because their mom and dad told them, and their parents wouldn’t lie to them…???  Not only is it embarrassing when they find out the truth, but it can totally allow for mistrust in the relationship between child and parent.

You better watch out…

I don’t believe that Santa’s “Naughty or Nice” list should not be part of a parent’s disciplinary arsenal.  How many times have we heard a parent threaten a child with “You better be good, or Santa won’t bring you a gift” or various other versions of the same concept?

As I seek to raise my children to respect the authority of God’s Word I don’t want them simultaneously trying to avoid Santa’s naughty list.  I want them to grow and develop a love for God that will eventually internally motivate them to do what is right.

I also don’t want them to confuse the theology of a Naughty/Nice list with the concept of sin and God’s grace.  While Santa only gives gifts to good children, God doesn’t operate that way.  None of us are “good” children, in that we are all sinners.  BUT God’s grace is freely extended to any of us who accept it regardless of our actions.  ( Romans 3:23 / Romans 6:23 )  It’s not about who deserves it, but about a God who gives it in spite of our mistakes.

Jesus is fun!

Surprisingly, or maybe not to surprisingly, one of the most common things I hear in response to our “non-Santa” Christmas is something along the lines of: “What about the magic of Christmas?”  or “You’re taking the fun out of Christmas.” UM….are you kidding me?  Sorry, but no.

Besides the fact that everything about Christmas is fun (presents, goodies, singing, decorations, family…) JESUS IS THE ABSOLUTE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS!!!! and of all of life for that matter! God, born as a baby to a virgin.  Lived a sinless life.  Performed miracles.  Died on a cross.  Rose from the dead after three days.  Saves the world from sin. Pretty magical to me.

and…JESUS IS FUN! Jesus is so fun!  To quote one of my favorite authors “[Jesus] is the biggest blast of my life.” ( Beth Moore; Audacious )

My life is better and richer and fuller – because of Jesus.  My life has meaning and purpose – because of Jesus. My life is exciting and full of surprises – because of Jesus. 

If we don’t show our kids that Jesus is fun now, what makes us think it will be any easier to show them that Jesus is fun when they are teenagers?!?

Ok, so how do we have fun at Christmas without Santa?

Let me count the ways:

My girls love to count and play with all our nativity sets. 

We have really enjoyed our new tradition of the Advent Jesse Tree where we read through the story of world every day leading up to Christmas and opening a representative ornament while learning that Jesus is the main character in all of it.

We enjoy walking through a live nativity every year as a family.

We also bake cookies, play games, sing Christmas carols, look at Christmas lights, and all the other fun “normal” Christmas things.  We watch Christmas movies – even ones with Santa in them (Oh my!) because my girls know that Santa is pretend just like Cinderella and Minnie Mouse.  But one of their favorites is The Nativity Story that we watch every Christmas Eve after we bake Jesus’ birthday cake. 

We have a Christmas tree, and we exchange gifts too.  You know what’s really cool about gifts at Christmas without Santa (besides not having to give the credit away to some guy in a red suit)?

My girls’ Christmas lists. 

They don’t write Christmas lists with all the things they want for Christmas.  They write Christmas lists full of names of the people they want to buy gifts for (Jesus made the list this tear too! LOL).  We take them shopping, and they even use some of their own money to buy gifts for others.

  It’s not about being good so we can get.  It’s about Jesus and what He did for us.  And since we can’t physically give a wrapped up gift to Jesus (like the wise men did), we can give gifts to His children (kind of like the real St. Nicolas did – which we’ve taught our girls about).

 

Final Thoughts

And just to be sure…as I was preparing to write this, I asked my girls (5 and 7) if they were sad about not believing in Santa, and the both said “no.”  When I asked them why they told me it was because “Jesus is more powerful” than ‘Santa.”  And you know what…it’s the truth.  If you look back up at the comparison chart, the best part about the whole thing is that it’s not really a comparison because Santa isn’t real and isn’t omnipotent or omnipresent or any of those things, but JESUS IS!!!

Jesus really does see you and know you.  He really is all-powerful and ever-present.  He really does miracles, and He really gives good and perfect gifts.  And He forgives and He saves – something I don’t think Santa is in the business of doing.

This Christmas and always, I pray for Jesus to be the center – at His rightful place.