Christians, tell your children there is no Santa Claus

[CaritateDei]

Wait, wait, wait, I got one! I got one! Pick me, pick me!

How about we let PARENTS decide whether or not their kids will believe in Santa Claus? Let's see if we can find a majority. Raise your hands! All in favor of letting parents decide say "aye" and all opposed say "nay."

And the "aye's" have it.

I was taught that there is a Santa Claus...or rather, was a Santa Claus.

He's an adaptation of Saint Nicolas. Saint Niklaus, or Santa Claus for short. It is a no-brainer that the Santa Claus tied in with Christmas didn't come around until the fourth century because Saint Nicolas died around that time!

Those saying take Santa Claus completely out of Christmas, PLEASE be consistent with your overreaction. If you're married, please throw away your wedding ring. If your Pastor wears robes, please tell him to throw those away. If your church has an altar, take it out. Oh, and PLEASE do not give ANY gifts on Christmas, because giving gifts on December 25th is not in the Bible.

Am I teaching my kids about Santa Claus? Yes. Will it be in the form of this fat man coming down the chimney to deliver gifts? Probably not. Do other parents have the right to teach their kids this tradition? Sure.

Stop overreacting, Christians. It's a BAD way to evangelize.

[Vickilynn]

i don't revere santa, though, and i really highly doubt any christians do...

Shalom LadyC,

The bottom line is, if Christian parents tell their children that Santa is REAL (or allow them to believe he is), then yes, that reveres and elevates Santa above G-d Who is truth and above Jesus, who is the Reason for the Season.

[Guest LadyC]

thing is, vickilynn, we may not realize that our kids think he is real! my kids are a prime example of that. i never taught them santa was real, but they believed anyway. it never occurred to me that they thought he was real. i figured they thought he was a fictional character just like snow white or cinderella.

i don't for one minute think that i was in sin that i didn't sit my children down and say "sorry kids, but cinderella isn't real". nor do i for one second think that i was in sin for not having sat my kids down and said "santa isn't real". and if i'm wrong on that, i'm sure God will prick my conscience.

there's a huge difference between actively perpetuating a lie, or actively encouraging it, and just letting kids be kids. as long as christian parents are not actively participating in making sure their children believe what is a lie, and as long as they ARE making sure to focus on what IS true, which is the birth of Christ and why we celebrate it, then i don't believe God is going to bring it up on judgement day.

[Vickilynn]

Wait, wait, wait, I got one! I got one! Pick me, pick me!

How about we let PARENTS decide whether or not their kids will believe in Santa Claus? Let's see if we can find a majority. Raise your hands! All in favor of letting parents decide say "aye" and all opposed say "nay."

Shalom CD,

So, you are in favor of parents choosing to LIE about Santa being real when the Bible says not to lie? Sorry, I'll choose G-d's ways, not man's ways.

Tradition is wrong if it goes against the Bible, we need to remember that.

[Vickilynn]

thing is, vickilynn, we may not realize that our kids think he is real! my kids are a prime example of that. i never taught them santa was real, but they believed anyway. it never occurred to me that they thought he was real. i figured they thought he was a fictional character just like snow white or cinderella.

i don't for one minute think that i was in sin that i didn't sit my children down and say "sorry kids, but cinderella isn't real". nor do i for one second think that i was in sin for not having sat my kids down and said "santa isn't real". and if i'm wrong on that, i'm sure God will prick my conscience.

there's a huge difference between actively perpetuating a lie, or actively encouraging it, and just letting kids be kids. as long as christian parents are not actively participating in making sure their children believe what is a lie, and as long as they ARE making sure to focus on what IS true, which is the birth of Christ and why we celebrate it, then i don't believe God is going to bring it up on judgement day.

Shalom LadyC,

Well, that is your opinion. The Bible says that lying is a sin, pure and simple. No matter how one 'spins" it, allowing children to believe that Santa is real (by either telling them or allowing them to believe) is lying. I am not talking about you and your life, but to everyone. The Bible is clear, yet all we see in this thread is man trying to justify not obeying G-d's Word in the name of "fun". That is pretty sad. Sure, sin is fun. But it's still sin.

We as Christians MUST teach the truth and not make exceptions for those little white lies that seem harmless. That is a lie of satan.

[Emily~Anne]

My observation is that parents have to go to alot of trouble to get their kids to believe in Santa and maintain that belief as long as possible. There is a hundred and one questions that pop into kid's minds about Santa that parents must answer. Wether or not they answer truthfully or not is the thing. If you want to tell your kids about santa fine, but make sure you openly tell them that the commercialized version of Santa Claus is not real and is just for fun or whatever. You could tell them a bit about Saint Nicholas and that he indeed was a real person. But above all, Jesus needs to be the center of Christmas!

[LossForWords]

I don't know that any of the Christian parents (or soon to be parents as in the case of me and Deb) on Worthy who have been involved in this conversation have ever sat our children down and told them to believe in Santa.

Santa was a real person...a real person that the church wanted to remember, so they made him into a saint. This saint was later carried to America. In America the awesome writer Washington Irving wrote a story about the History of New York which included St. Nick. Later on an Episcopal Minister, Moore, decided to write a poem to his daughters to tell the story of St. Nick...I think the poem was actually called, "A Visit from St. Nick" but as Americans we call the poem, "The Night Before Christmas." It was Moore who gave us the reindeer, and the sleigh, and the popping down the chimney thing.

I don't think any of the Christian potential parents/parents who allow their children to have Santa during the holidays have ever sat their children down on the sofa one night and said, "Look, there's this guy name Santa, you have to believe he's a real person." Nope, but we do allow them to listen to the Christmas stories, and watch the Christmas specials, and sit on Santa's lap at the mall and ask him to bring them something special. And there's nothing wrong with that in the least.

To call Christian parents liars because they allow their children to use their imagination during the holidays is absurd. None of us said it was ok to tell our children a lie...we just said that allowing our children to develop their imagination during the holidays is not sinful. No where in the scripture does it say my child can not and will not use their imagination ever, for fear of being declared a sinner.

The whole Christmas holiday itself is just a melting pot of traditions. Nothing we celebrate during this time of the year is scriptural. Yeah, once upon a time Jesus was born, but according to historians it would be more believable that he was born during the spring because sheep herders would not be out in the middle of winter.

Christmas trees, cards, gifts, celebrating Jesus' birth, Santa...it's all just a melting pot of traditions. I choose to celebrate Jesus birth on Christmas Eve with a candle light service, communion, and the reading of the birth from the Bible. I choose to celebrate Christmas morning by opening presents that are under the tree. And when my child comes he will have one under the tree from Santa. I choose to spend the rest of Christmas with family feeding my face.

None of our Christmas traditions are scriptural...nothing we celebrate during this time of the year is based on anything that comes from the Bible. Over the years, Americans have just chosen what they want to celebrate during this time of the year. As Christians many of us celebrate Jesus' birth, and some of us throw a little saint (santa) in there as well.

I think the Christians who have been participating in this discussion are perturbed because the people who do not allow Santa in their home are assuming that all other Christians are wrong and are in act sinning because they allow their children to believe. None of us are lying to our kids and telling them that Santa is a real person today (though he actually is based on a historical figure). We are allowing them to hear the stories, and believe what they want to believe during the season (until they are old enough to figure out that Santa doesn't really have flying reindeer).

And I'll be sure my child does not visit Worthy during the holidays...

[Guest LadyC]

My observation is that parents have to go to alot of trouble to get their kids to believe in Santa and maintain that belief as long as possible.

then how do you explain my kids having believed in santa? i went to no trouble at all, because i wasn't going to share the credit for the gifts i spent my hard earned money on with some jolly fat guy in a red suit.

and i'm sure my situation isn't unique. if my kids believed without any help from me, i'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of kids out there who believe, but yet whose parents never made an effort to make santa "real" to them.

[Emily~Anne]

Also, Santa is at a much higher risk of being idolized than any other fantasy character. Much higher. As a result, we must be more careful and more conscientious when it comes to teaching our children about Santa.

You dont hear of kids asking 101 questions about Cinderalla and etc. and how can she really be true, etc.

And Lady C, I thoroughly believe your kids were in the minority. I was around many, many children growing up, (we moved alot) and your children would have been very much the minority among them. I idolized Santa plenty as a child, and I was ridiculed by my peers for believing in Santa.

[LossForWords]

I moved around alot as well (being a pastor's kid).

I've taught elementary children for 5 years.

I now work amongst Nazarene day cares and private schools.

In my experience, I would say that the children who do not believe in Santa are among the minority. I know in the past 5 years of teaching, I always had one or two children out of 25-30 that did not believe in Santa. And if you were to ask these children that believe if mommy told them Santa was real, if they were honest, they would say, "nope, I just believe."

I don't think LadyC's kids are in the minority. They were around kids all the time at school and during play time at home. During the holidays Santa is going to get talked about and children are going to believe. And I'm not going to sit them down and burst their imaginary bubble. Just as I'm not going to burst my child's bubble when he thinks he is hiding even though only his upper body is covered.