Merry CHRISTmas season everyone! This is such a wonderful season. I love the weather, the food, the music, and all the joy that goes with it. But there is one thing that my wife and I are not too fond of during this time of year-commercialism. Buy, spend, charge, stress, yell, speed, no parking, hurry, argh! That is the drain that takes all the fun and true meaning out of CHRISTmas. And then come the credit card bills. And then there is Santa. Here is why, as we always say, “We don’t do Santa”.
First, do I believe that believing in, the telling of, and following Santa is a sin and offensive to God? No. Because CHRISTmas is not a God ordained holiday (as is Passover, which is a God ordained “Holy day”). CHRISTmas is actually a man made holiday designed to honor and remember the birth of Jesus Christ. It actually is plastered all over pagan holiday customs (such as the Christmas tree). No one actually knows the true day when Christ was born. December 25th is just an estimated guess. I don’t even believe that if a Christian did not celebrate CHRISTmas that they would be offending God. We should honor Jesus all the time, from birth to death…and life again.
We choose to emphasize the miracle that is the birth of Jesus Christ. We keep our gift giving to each other in our household to a minimum and choose the wise men bringing gifts as the reason why we do it. Although many would say that gift giving is in honor of St. Nicholas, which I will get to in a minute. We also put a large emphasis on the importance of helping those less fortunate. Some of what we involve ourselves in are Operation Christmas Child, Gospel for Asia, and donations to The Rescue Mission. When we purchase the toys for other children, and when we donate old toys to make room for new, we tell our children that it is for children who don’t have any toys. And they understand this and don’t cry because they want all the toys in the world. All because we follow the path of Jesus and give gifts (especially those who don’t “get”), instead of the path of Santa which is to expect and receive gifts.
Growing up my parents did the Santa thing. I sat on his laps. I sent the letters. I stayed up all night on CHRISTmas eve and even thought I heard reindeer on the roof (which I later found out was my parents radio in their room playing CHRISTmas music). I always got what I asked for. I expected it, or else! But when I was eight, I didn’t get a single thing I asked for. This is when I stopped believing. After this I though CHRISTmas was all about presents. “The more the merrier!”; “This is what I want.”; ” What? That’s not what I asked for!” I remember one time when I was nine or ten I got into a fight with my Dad because I got a “learn to draw” set, and I already knew how to draw. What a brat! I was actually happy that my parents were divorced because it meant more gifts. I didn’t know what this Jesus guy was all about and what He has to do with CHRISTmas, the holiday designed for getting gifts. I didn’t know what Jesus had to do with CHRISTmas until my late teens. Wow! Talk about a childhood of being deprived.
When the question of “Who is Santa?” arrives, we are honest with our children and tell them that he is a make believe person that some people believe is real. We also tell them not to EVER tell other children that he is not real. Everyone has their beliefs. We believe that if we tell them that he is real and lead them to believe this, then we are lying to them. I shudder to think that we teach them to believe in something so miraculous that they cannot see, then they find out he is not real. Then we expect them to believe the same thing about Jesus. They may not trust that he is real either, considering that trust is compromised when they find out you have been lying to them for years. However, we are willing to share the story of St. Nicholas. Although Santa and St. Nick are the same, they are very different. One did great things for the poor because he served Jesus. The other just spoils kids and does things that no human can ever do in one night. One is real, one is a myth derived from the one who is real (although some historians believe that there isn’t enough evidence to support the existence of St. Nicholas either). St Nicholas is actually a good example of giving. He teaches to give to the poor and not worry or whine about what toys you will be getting. Santa teaches that everyone automatically gets whatever they want. So kids expect it. I know many kids who were strongly led on to Santa, and every December 25th you almost want to pack them up and send them to the North Pole for Santa to deal with because of all the “me, me, I want!”. Just kidding! UPS won’t pick up packaged kids.
The choice is “Do we emphasize the birth of Jesus and teach about Him and His love?“ or “Do we teach about a magical man with magical reindeer who will drop down the chimney at midnight and bring all the gifts that you asked for?“ The story of Jesus and His reason probably isn’t as fascinating to a child as the story of Santa and his sack of toys. Most children will just concern themselves with Santa and not pay much mind to that Jesus guy. It’s kind of like offering them broccoli or cake…for dinner.
I know many Christian families do both Santa and Jesus, hoping that they will eventually pick Jesus as the reason for the season. Many believe that we should do that with our children too. But if you give a child a choice between broccoli and cake for dinner, they will probably choose the cake. Broccoli is better for you than cake, so that’s what we feed to our children.
Love in CHRIST!
